Utilitarianism, economics, and legal theory chicago journals. Mill, utilitarianism 1863 a brief overview of the reading. In many respects, it is the outlook of scottish philosopher david hume 17111776 and his writings from the mid18th century. The justice of economics duke law scholarship duke university. It addresses the meaning of ethical terms such as right, duty, obligation, justification, morality, responsibility. This is the case in the field of law and economics where william. Chapter 11 utilitarianism and the theory of justice. This paper presents the different utilitarian approaches to ethics. Utilitarianism, economics, and legal theory the journal. Hence the book does much to fill the gap between legal and ethical theory, and, what is more, provides a practical context in which to compare the directives of ruleutilitarianism with those of actutilitarianism. In section 6, we analyze generalizations of utilitarian principles to variablepopulation environments.
Introduction the legal theory lexicon already includes posts on deontology and utilitarianismrepresenting two important families of ethical theory. In his essay utilitarianism, economics, and legal theory 1979, for the first. The theory has then moved away from hedonism to consider that the psychological law at stake is the. Jeremy benthams 17481832 principle of utility is open to the objection that it may well sacrifice the rights of the minority for the sake of the happiness of the majority. Consequentialist decision theory and utilitarian ethics peterj. Section 5 focuses on utilitarianism itself and presents characterization theorems for it. It stresses the influence of utilitarianism in economics in general and in welfare economics in particular. There is an interesting overlap between philosophy and economics. Questions tagged utilitarianism ask question the ethical theory that answers all questions of what to do, what to admire, or how to live, in terms of maximizing utility or happiness. These include relativism theory, utilitarianism theory, egoism theory, deontology theory, the divine command theory, and the virtue ethics theory. For one thing, the criterion dispute includes a dispute about whether. This is the correct sequence if the topic is legal theory as harts was, but. The case of john stuart mill daniel jacobson bowling green state university in this essay i will argue, flouting paradox, that mill was a utilitarian but not a consequentialist. Conversely, some utilitarians measure a laws usefulness by its ability to decrease.
Utilitarianism, in normative ethics, a tradition stemming from the late 18th and 19thcentury english philosophers and economists jeremy bentham and john stuart mill according to which an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness. Bentham, a fragment on government, 1776 important contributions. Utilitarianism, the view that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness, is no longer taken seriously either as a moral principle or as a theory of tort law. According to the textbook definition, of course, utilitarianism just is the combination of a certain sort of theory of the. Although utilitarians differ as to the meaning of the word useful, most agree that a laws utility may be defined as its ability to increase happiness, wealth, or justice. In contrast, rule utilitarianism is the theory that an act is right if and only if it would be permitted by a system of rules whose general acceptance would result in at least as much overall wellbeing as would the general acceptance of any system of rules. Consequentialist decision theory and utilitarian ethics. List of books and articles about utilitarianism online. John stuart mill 18061873, himself a utilitarian, sought to rescue utilitarianism from this. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, which advocates that those actions are right which bring about the most good overall.
The essay first appeared as a series of three articles published in frasers magazine in 1861. It holds that the greatest good is happiness and freedom from pain and suffering. The purpose of this paper is to show how some of the controversial questions concerning utilitarianism can be clarified by the modelling techniques and the other analytical tools of decision theory and, sometimes, of game theory. Pdf study on the rationality of utilitarian philosophy of lawan. We recall that a simplified description of benthams utilitarianism said that the greatest good could be achieved by bringing the most happiness to the largest number. Benthams hedonistic psychology and the theory of utility. Questions tagged utilitarianism philosophy stack exchange. Hart was suggesting that utilitarianism preceded economics. Librivox recording of utilitarianism, by john stuart mill. If the final end of human action, as aristotle claimed, is happiness, it follows that the institution of a political state a product of human action also aims. But it received both its name and its clearest statement in the writings of english philosophers jeremy bentham 17481832 and john stuart mill 18061873. Indeed, crisp claims that mills version of utilitarianism is developed in this.
Ethics and ethical theories from an islamic perspective. Utilitarianism 7 as well as truth and falsehood, are questions of observation and experi ence. The meaning of utilitarianism henry sidgwick defining utilitarianism 1. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. Utilitarianism an ethical theory according to which the rightness and wrongness of acts depends entirely on facts about the maximization of overall wellbeing. Utilitarianism as an independent ethical position only arose in the eighteenth century however fundamental utilitarian ideas can be found in the thoughts of philosophers such as aristotle. John stuart mills book utilitarianism is one of the most influential and widelyread philosophical defenses of utilitarianism in ethics. Among other things, he shows the incipient diversity extant. It assumes that individual subjective utilities and costs can be added, subtracted, and. In jurisprudence, a philosophy whose adherents believe that law must be made to conform to its most socially useful purpose. As always, the lexicon provides a quick and dirty summary with an eye to law students especially firstyear law students with an interest in. In this book, he applies economic theory to four areas of interest to students of social and legal institutions. Section 5 deals with the special case of utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism law and legal definition uslegal, inc. Todays session will focus on utilitarianism and the next on tuesday, 4th october will look at deontology. Of all published articles, the following were the most read within the past 12 months. Posner is probably the leading scholar in the rapidly growing field of the economics of law. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different characterizations, the basic idea behind all of them is to in some sense maximize utility, which is often defined in terms of wellbeing or related concepts. But before we can begin such discussions, a few preliminary points need to be addressed. Pdf the utilitarian theory of lawan analysis researchgate. The classical utilitarians bentham and mill download. It is a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. John bonner has presented a careful, even exquisite account of the development of utilitarian ideas in economics from bentham to edgeworth, identifying and deploying the characteristic elements of the classical utilitarianism of welfare economics. The axioms employed in sections 4 and 5 are of two types.
In describing economic analysis of law as inspired by utilitarianism, h. Normative economics endorsed a hedonistic version of utilitarianism from the latter. Utilitarianism is a theory of normative ethics that ethically evaluates actions by consequences and impact on overall happiness it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong. Ethics four branches 3 metaethics the study of ethical terms, statements and judgements. Maximization the view that the value of a state of affairs should be made as great as possible. Whether there are any agent neutral theories that are not consequentialist is not so clear, because some recent work in moral philosophy suggests that any plausible moral theory can be recast as a consequentialist theory. Utilitarianism john stuart mill mcmaster faculty of. Bentham developed a liberal theory of justice based on egalitarian. This philosophy identifies pleasure as beneficial and pain as detrimental to a persons wellbeing. A second reason for d efending utilitarianism is that it is a consequentialist theory. This volume includes the complete texts of two of john stuart mills most important works, utilitarianism and on liberty, and selections from his other writings, including the complete text of his. Murray rothbard offers a wideranging critique of utilitarian economics.
Utilitarianism law and legal definition utilitarianism is a philosophical and economic doctrine that the best social policy is that which does the most good for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism utilitarianism is an ethical theory that states that the best action is the one that maximizes utility. An introduction to mills utilitarian ethics explicitly considered themselves utilitarians. The economic concept of utility borrows a great deal from jeremy benthams notions of utilitarianism. Relying upon a version of utilitarianism advanced by the philosopher rm hare, i will demonstrate that distinguishing between two levels of utilitarian thinking can provide a credible explanatory and normative theory of tort law that is immune to many of the critiques usually levelled at. Jeremy bentham 17481832, john stuart mill 18061873, henry. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes.
One assessed ethical views toward the expected consequences of an action or teleology. Utility is defined in various ways, usually in terms of the wellbeing of sentient entities, such as human beings and other animals. Utilitarianism and antiutilitarianism by antoinette. It stresses the influence of utilitarianism in economics in general and in. Bentham and the common law tradition, chapters 5 and 12. Daniel jacobson the diversity of utilitarianism most philosophers currently working in the tradition, simply as consequentialism. While utilitarianism assumes that morality, the good, is purely subjective to each individual, it assumes on the other hand that these subjective desires can be added, subtracted, and weighed across the various individuals in society.
Jeremy bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, described utility as the sum of all pleasure that results from an action, minus the suffering. Two views of ethics robert mcgee barry university introduction most discussions of political philosophy revolve around the relationship between the individual and the state or the individual and the masses. As is pointed out in section 10, however, the individual welfare functions which ought to be added have a very di. Posner, the ethical and political basis of the efficiency norm in common law. But on closer examination, it appears to be applied to several distinct theories, having no necessary connexion with one.
Jeremy bentham 17481832 nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. Utilitarianism is a family of moral and political philosophies according to which general utility or social welfare is ultimately the sole ethical value or good to be maximized. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number. A philosophy that bases the moral worth of an action upon the number of people it gives happiness or pleasure to. In many respects, this ethical pronouncement provides the philosophical foundation for the utilitarianism advocated by jeremy bentham and, to some degree, john stuart mill. Utilitarianism, in its most traditional form, is both a theory of the good and a theory of the right. The key idea of the paper to explain the evolution from classical utilitarianism to preferences utilitarianism and towards postwelfarist approaches is the following. Some are information assumptions and they require the socialevaluation functional to make use of meaningful utility information only. It is suggested that the moral rules of utilitarian ethics have a logical status similar to that of the normative rules theorems of such formal normative. It is a philosophical theory of morality or how one should act which has historical roots within the. Posner, utilitarianism, economics, and legal theory, 8 j.
Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics, or the ethics that define the morality of actions, as proposed by jeremy bentham and john stuart mill. Rule utilitarianism and decision theory springerlink. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are. Analysis of the language, concepts and methods of resoning in ethics. Utilitarianism is one of the most important and influential moral theories of modern times. Today legal theorists who discuss utilitarianism tend to reject it as a basis of normative legal theory. Student views of classic ethical positions in business dan baugher pace university ellen weisbord pace university abstract two fiveitem ethical position scales were created. It is true that similar confusion and uncertainty, and in some cases similar discordance, exist respecting the first principles of all the sciences, not excepting that which is deemed the most certain of them. These theories are the current theoretical framework that is applied by recent research to explain an ethical phenomenon. Utilitarianism is a family of consequentialist ethical theories that promotes actions that maximize happiness and wellbeing for the affected individuals. Utilitarianism is the social philosophy, legal theory and ethical system, primarily associated with jeremy bentham and his followers in 19th century britain utilitarianism is founded on the an underlying hedonistic philosophy. Utilitarian justification utilitarianism is the third moral justification for protection the other two being the labourbased theories and the personality theory and is claimed to be the predominant justification for intellectual property rights. In his textbook, economic analysis of law 1972, posner devoted little thought. But both hold equally that morality must be deduced from prin ciples.
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