DeVry University Utilitarianism Dilemma Discussion

There are three basic propositions in standard Utilitarianism (Please be sure to listen to Mill’s audio lecture before joining this threaded discussion):

Actions are judged right and wrong solely on their consequences; that is, nothing else matters except the consequence, and right actions are simply those with the best consequences.

To assess consequences, the only thing that matters is the amount of happiness and unhappiness caused; that is, there is only one criterion and everything else is irrelevant.

In calculating happiness and unhappiness caused, nobody’s happiness counts any more than anybody else’s; that is, everybody’s welfare is equally important and the majority rules.

In specific cases where justice and utility are in conflict, it may seem expedient to serve the greater happiness through quick action that overrules consideration for justice. There is a side to happiness that can call for rushed decisions and actions that put decision-makers under the pressure of expediency.

Here is a dilemma for our class:

You are the elected district attorney. You receive a phone call from a nursing home administrator who was a good friend of yours in college. She has a waiting list of 3,000 people who will die if they don’t get into her nursing home facility within the next 3 weeks, and she currently has 400 patients who have asked (or their families have asked on their behalf) for the famous Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s (fictitious) sister, Dr. Jill Kevorkian, for assistance in helping them die. The 3,000 people on the waiting list want to live. She (the nursing home administrator) wants to know if you would agree to “look the other way” if she let in Dr. Jill to assist in the suicide of the 400 patients who have requested it, thus allowing at least 400 of the 3,000 on the waiting list in.

John Stuart Mill
(1806 – 1873)
John Stuart Mill was born in 1806 in London. He was a famous philosopher, economist and senior
official in the East India Company. He received his education from his father and Jeremy Bentham
(another famous philosopher and utilitarian.)
Mill wrote a number of works and books (some examples):
Principles of Political Economy 1848
Utilitarianism 1861
On Liberty 1859
The Subjection of Women 1869
Three Essays on Religion 1874
Mill tried to show that “economics was not the ‘dismal science’ that its radical and literary critics had supposed.” (Mautner)
Mill reflected ”on the difference between what economics measured and what human beings really valued.” (Mautner)
Philosophically, Mill was a radical empiricist who held that all human knowledge, including even mathematics and
logic, is derived by generalization from sensory experience….Mill developed a systematic statement of utilitarian
ethical theory. He modified and defended the general principle that right actions are those that tend to produce
the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people, being careful to include a distinction in the quality of the
pleasures that constitute happiness. There Mill also attempted a proof of the principle of utility, explained its
enforcement, and discussed its relation to a principle of justice. (Kemerling)
Mill believed in independent thought and ability of individuals to avoid state interference, but for when the greatest number
of people would be benefited by that intervention.
“In 1851 Mill married Harriet Taylor after 21 years of an at times intense friendship and love affair.
Taylor was a significant influence on Mill’s work and ideas during both friendship and marriage. His
relationship with Harriet Taylor reinforced Mill’s advocacy of women’s rights.” (Wikipedia) His views on
women’s rights were immensely before his time. He and his wife Harriet both felt that “they lived in a
society where bold and adventurous individuals were becoming all too rare.” (Mautner) Mill feared
middle class conformism and also feared that democracy would cause an oppressive and violent
society, caring little or nothing about individual liberty.
Harriet Taylor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ta//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Taylor-harriet.jpg
Kemerling, Garth. http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/mill.htm Last updated: August 2, 2002.
Mautener, Thomas, Ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy
http://www.utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm
“John Stuart Mill.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill Last modified: Jan 30, 2006.
Mill speaks: My name is John Stuart Mill. How exciting to be a part of a 21st
century Ethics course. Once again, I see that my fears about democracy
perhaps have come true. When you have done some research about me, and
read the lecturette, you will find that I lived during the late 19th century, in
London, and that my wife Harriet Taylor and myself feared that we lived in a
society where bold and adventurous individuals were becoming all too rare.
My critics thought that the prospect of a mass democracy in which workingclass opinion would be oppressive and perhaps violent frightened me. This
was an untrue belief. The truth is that middle-class conformism frightened
me much more.
My ethics state that individual liberty and the rights of the individual are by
far the most important of all! I also believed in women’s rights and liberty
back when no man believed this. How can we love the individual, if we deny
this in women? The answer is, “We cannot!” Women and men should be
treated equally in all things!
I am a Utilitarian. That which is useful is that which is right. I have lain down
“one very simple principle” to govern the use of coercion (meaning legal
penalties) in society — we may only coerce others in self-defense – either to
defend ourselves, or to defend others from harm. All of this “saving people
from themselves” is rubbish! It is not the role of the government to make
people behave “better.” It is the role of the individual to do this. Only by
adopting a principle of self-restraint can we seek out the truth, experience
the truth as “our own”, and fully develop our individual selves. Your Patriot
Act? You will discuss this during our class. How can this be good? Do you
feel safer? Are you willing to give up all of your rights if that will make you
100% safe?
One of your great Americans said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”
Americans, do you still believe this? I do wonder. Read my Essay “On
Liberty.” You may learn something. Good day!