Utilitarianism

[Sarahboo2002]

Would utilitarians look at society as a whole or more smaller pleasures? Can you say this is a criticism as it’s hard to determine what is being asked about
Mill would’ve been appalled at Nike’s treatment of workers, as for Mill people needed ot be given safe working conditions, holidays, education for children etc, all as part of bringing about their happiness (higher pleasures?).
Bentham and Mill- Mill argued money is a lower pleasure so should not be worried about too much (arguably this means utilitarianism is weak theory in business), Bentham was completely against exploiting people— is this correct?

[Aimee Horsley]

Hi Sarah,

Utilitarian’s look at the greatest happiness for the greatest number so that includes society as a whole. The HC is applied to individual situations (Act) and the rules can e broken in extreme situations (Rule) but it is society as a whole. And yes this can be a criticism as it is often hard to make those decisions and apply unbiasedly.

Yes Mill, applying his ‘harm principle’, would not agree with the use of sweatshops and Bentham is also not a supporter of them.
I guess it could be seen as a weak theory, it depends if you are arguing that Business is only to do with profit (Capitalism – Friedman), if you see Business ethics as touching upon a range of areas such as Whistle Blowing and Globalisation then this Utilitarian argument could also be argued to apply.

Hope this helps 🙂

[Sarahboo2002]

Thanks so muc hthat’s helpful, I’m still a bit confused about whether it is true that Mill would have been appalled by the sweatshops because they stop people having higher pleasures? Is this correct. Would Mill say money is a lower pleasure so it should not be worried about too much and should instead focus on things that acheive more happiness like reading? I guess I’m confused by Mill’s higher pleasures- would he say that the action that brings about the most amount of higher pleasure is always the correct one, therefore suggesting sweat shops are wrong as they limit this for the workers? Would you have to talk about utilitarianism as a whole or could you focus in one for example Mill in one paragraph and Bentham in another

[Aimee Horsley]

Lower pleasures are those that animals experience/focus on e.g food so money wouldn’t necessarily fall under a lower pleasure. I guess you could link by saying that people in sweatshops because of the environment have less opportunity to achieve higher pleasures.
It would totally depend on the question. If it was utilitarianism and business then you would need to explore different avenues, if Mill then focus on Mill etc.

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