SOSC 2340 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: John Stuart Mill, James Mill, On Liberty
3 Dec 2018
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According to bentham, the right thing to do is whatever will maximize utility. Whatever produces pleasure or happiness, and whatever prevents pain or suffering. A just society promotes the happiness of its members. A just policy is one that promotes the greatest overall happiness for people affected by the policy. A community needs to ensure that its policies provide the greatest possible benefit to the entire community. Not all values can be measured by a common currency. Basing decisions on expected problems can be problematic. Utilitarianism policy says to make the decision that increases the happiness of most people. Think of the city of happiness from sandel. City population is completely happy except for child who has to live a miserable life in a basement. The rights of the child are ignored for the happiness of everyone else. Utilitarianism tends to use a cost-benefit analysis to make decisions. This puts decisions into monetary terms then compares them.
