11 Objections to Utilitarisnism PDF

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List of 11 objections to utilitarianism including Utilitarianism according to Sterling Harwood, - Maximize utility and minimize disutility, Mill: Utility=Happiness=pleasure-pain, Harwood: Utility=Psychological Satisfaction (as broad of a definition as possible), Calls this a monistic moral principle...

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11 Objections to Utilitarianism - Utilitarianism according to Sterling Harwood - Maximize utility and minimize disutility. - Mill: Utility=Happiness=pleasure-pain - Harwood: Utility=Psychological Satisfaction (as broad of a definition as possible) - Calls this a monistic moral principle - There is only one thing that has moral value. - Happiness or psychological satisfaction. 1. It is over-demanding a. The Inhospitable hospital: 5 patients in the ICU need organ transplants or they will die: heart, liver, lung, kidney, kidney. 1 healthy patient comes in for a checkup. The utilitarian thing to do would be to make the 1 healthy patient sacrifice their life because 5 lives>1 life. b. Different version: The doctor kills the patient, and his murder would be the RIGHT thing to do. c. I. we cannot prioritize our own psychological well-being. d. II. the right action almost always involves putting other people’s needs in front of yours. e. III. So Utilitarianism sometimes demands extreme self-sacrifice. f. IV. The true moral theory should not demand extreme self-sacrifice. g. Conclusion: THEREFORE, FUCK UTILITARIANISM! h. Harwood replies: Who ever said being moral should be easy? Utilitarianism says we are morally obligated to be very self-sacrificing, and perhaps that is just true. i. Harwood also replies that a Utilitarian might make an excuse for not contributing to charity: The world is getting worse every day, so my charity money will be more helpful later. So I will just save up money for future charity, and buy things that will appreciate in value like art and baseball cards. 2. It eliminates supererogation a. Supererogation: doing more than is required by morality and going above and beyond your moral obligations b. I. Utilitarianism says you are morally required to maximize utility. c. II. So if you could do more to improve psychological satisfaction, you are morally obligated to do more. d. III. So there is nothing you could do that goes above and beyond your moral obligations. e. IV. Any moral theory that eliminated the possibility of supererogation is false. f. So, FUCK UTILITARIANISM! g. Harwood replies that this objection overlooks ties. If there are ties in two actions that maximize utility then whichever choice is made will involve some sort of sacrifice. 3. It is unjust a. Justice is not prioritized by Utilitarianism except where justice promotes total psychological well being. b. But the moral theory should prioritize justice over happiness in some cases.

c. So Utilitarianism is false. d. Example #1: A scientific genius murders his wife BUT he is on the verge of curing cancer. Utilitarianism entails he should not be punished in any way that would interfere with his research (problematic?) e. Example #2: Blaming the town drunk for a crime of racial violence (PROBLEMATIC.) i. What does he mean by “a case of racial violence”? ii. A white woman has been raped and murdered and the angry mob is executing black people? iii. Why is this the example he chooses? iv. wHY is his only question whether or not the sheriff should frame the innocent drunk? v. This choice of example portrays the historical whiteness of philosophy: don’t engage with racism at all after bringing up a racially charged example. f. Example #3: The Rodney King case: Harwood worries that Utilitarianism entails that someone on the jury should have voted “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt: to prevent the ensuing riots. This is raised as a worry for Utilitarianism-meaning that he assumes justice was served when those police officers were acquitted, and that justice would have been obscured if someone had voted “guilty”. g. Still, even though these examples are problematic, it does seem like a problem to always promote psychological well-being over justice. 4. It fails to take promises seriously a. Keeping promises has no intrinsic value b. You should break your promise whenever doing so would cause more pyscholigical wellness than harm c. Example: should we keep our promises to the dead? i. Should we keep our promises to monogamy when we are more or less certain we’ll get away with cheating? 5. Average total utilitarianism is absurd a. maximize average utility: the best actions increase the average amount of psychological satisfaction b. Maximize total utility: the best actions increase the total amount of psychological satisfaction c. Problem w/ max. Avg.: it entails we should eliminate people who are living below the average level of satisfaction. d. Problem w/ max. Total: it entails we should increase the population until the world is so crowded that life is barely worth living 6. Rule utilitarianism is redundant and incoherent a. Act Utilitarianism: an action is right to the degree that it maximizes utility and minimizes disutility b. Rule Utilitarianism: an action is right if it is in accord with a rule that, if adopted, would maximize utility and minimize utility as compared to other rules we might adopt

c. “Don’t steal” is an OK statement in rule-util. but not in act-util. d. Act Utilitarianism deals with particular actions, rules talk about GENERAL effects. e. Example: you need to steal a radio to inform people that a storm is coming and they need to evacuate. i. Possibilities: (1) you should not always maximize utility, so utilitarianism is false. (2) you should follow a different rule that says, “Don’t steal, unless it is to save lives”. But after you add all the relevant “unless” clauses, ruleutilitarianism will be exactly the same as act-utilitarianism. In other words, rule becomes redundant. 7. It requires us to enter an experience machine a. A life spent in the experience machine is a life of mental masturbation, an unreal and degrading life unworthy of us, though it will seem perfectly real and satisfying to us as long as we stay inside the machine. Utilitarianism’s monism leaves no room to place any intrinsic nvalue on truth, knowledge or reality, with which we lose touch once we enter the experience machine. b. Utilitarianism entails that we should all spend our lives in experience machines. c. But this is horrible. The true theory of right action does not entail that everyone should live in experience machines 8. It overstates our duties to animals a. Util entails that animals must be members of our moral community since they experience pain and pleasure and have psychological satisfaction. b. So utilitarianism entails that we have the same duties to animals as we do to people. c. Any theory that gives animals the same moral standing as humans is false. d. Therefore, utilitarianism is false. e. Mill’s response to the swine objection might still apply to this argument. 9. It panders to bigots and sadists a. Utilitarianism counts as promoting racist, sexist, bigoted and sadistic pleasures as things that should be promoted. b. Any moral theory that says these should be promoted is false. c. Therefore, utilitarianism is false d. The problem is not that the util says the sadistic actions are right, all things considered, the problem is that it gives any weight to sadistic pleasures at all, 10. It makes interpersonal comparisons of utility 11. It is too secretive, undemocratic, and elitist....