The basis of this school of thought
is what gives benefit to human generally. It means that law is created to give
people benefit, utility, or happiness. This thought demands the State to result
benefit for its people or at least for as many people as possible in every
action taken. It prioritizes the greatest happiness of the greatest number. So it takes utility as the foundation of
morals.
LAW = “UTILITY”
Description: Law that is created and enacted to
achieve utility/benefit is applied to society, then the society will give the
feedback whether the law fits their expectation or not. If it doesn’t fit to
the most people (the pleasure expectation of society is higher), then the law
will be improved better to fit.
The Principles of Utility
1.
Recognizes the fundamental role of pain and
pleasure in human life.
2.
Approves or disapproves of an action on the
basis of the amount of pain or pleasure brought about (consequences).
3.
Equates the good with the pleasurable and evil
with pain.
4.
Asserts that pleasure and pain are capable of
quantification and hence of measure.
According to Jeremy Bentham, the intrinsic value is Pleasure
and he assumes that pleasure = happiness. He believes utilitarianism is clearly
individualistic and egalitarian and that law must serve the totality of
individuals in a community.
There are 2 types of
utilitarianism:
-
Act Utilitarianism: choose between two actions
for which one produces happiness.
-
Rule Utilitarianism: choose between two ethical
rules for which rule would produce the greatest happiness.
Similar ethical theories also exist and it might be your way
of thinking. First is Egoism, this considers happiness for me and only me.
Second is Altruism, it considers happiness for everyone except me. And
the last one is utilitarianism, which considers happiness for everyone
including me.
I have a friend who always thinks about his only benefit and
happiness and when things don’t give him pleasure, he chooses to leave it even
if it brings happiness to others. And I also have a best friend who sacrifices
her own happiness just o make other people happy. Well everyone has their own
ways of thinking and reasons, right? Now have you figured out which type are
you? ;D
Utilitarianism also tends to be pragmatism. Pragmatism is like,
”it doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice” (Deng
Xiaoping). Sounds creepy? Yeah the bad side of pragmatism is THE END justifies
THE MEANS. Whoops!
Now that we are talking about utilitarianism that insists
law to give people pleasure and so on, we must be wondering what is happiness?
And how we measure it?
Experts explain that pleasure consists of bodily pleasure
and mental/intellectual pleasure. How do we know happiness is pleasure and
which pleasure is better? It all depends on actual experience of people.
We may be able to calculate our happiness by asking
INTENSITY (how strong?), DURATION (how long does it last?), CERTAINTY (how
likely will it occur?), REMOTENESS (How soon will it occur?), FECUNDITY (will
it be followed by sensation of the same kind?), PURITY (will it not be followed
by sensation of the opposite kind?) and EXTENT (how many people will be
affected?)
Weaknesses of Utilitarianism:
1.
It ignores happiness of minority because it
prioritizes the happiness of majority. Hence it is not just anymore because
everyone doesn’t get equal happiness.
2.
It is quite difficult to measure the happiness
for it is abstract.
“Utilitarianism is most
appropriate for policy decisions, as long as a strong notion of fundamental
human rights guarantees that it will not violate rights of small minorities.” –
Lawrence M. Hinman, 2003
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