Preference utilitarianism

[Sarahboo2002]

Hi miss I’ve been revising business ethics and I just dont understand a couple of things when applying utilitarianism, especially preference utilitarianism.

My textbook says: For Singer, ethical business decisions involve weighing the interests of all stake-holders.
Preference utilitatisn may disagree as being lied to would go against the preferenceso f the shareholders, to work out if they acted unethically we need to consider whether their actions lead ot the greatest number of preferences being met, as they acted selfishly and others lost out this was unethical. For Singer ethical business decisions involve weighing the interests of all stake-holders not just stock holders.—- I’m struggling to really get to grips with what this means. Also, in utilitarianism is everyone’s pleasures/pain valued equally? Could you use this as a strength maybe to say utilitarianism doesnt value the pleasure eg of the employer more than the customer? Thanks so much

[Aimee Horsley]

Hi Sarah,
Preference Utilitarianism is from the old spec so the examiners are not expecting you to use it in an exam. To answer your questions though, I don’t know what you mean by stock holders but as far as preference Utilitarianism what it is saying (from what I can follow in your point above) is that if one person lies in business and that is their preference to do that, then it affects more preferences of those stake holders (some one that has something at stake in the correct running of that business e.g. a job). So you have to consider the preferences of the majority and if they are affected negatively then it is not ethical. And yes everyone’s pleasure and pain are equally considered. I hope this helps 🙂

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