Basics of Utilitarianism

Happiness is the measure of importance, not income/wealth/etc.

Society should strive to become as happy as possible as a whole.
A person is encouraged to think about the happiness of not just him/herself, but also of the society as
a whole.
If an action will make person one happier than person two becomes unhappy (thereby increasing the
total happiness of the society), that action should be done.
Criticisms/Responses
Not everyone has same intensity of preference/not everyone likes the same thing
o This is not really that bad, and allows for someone who doesn't like a certain type of thing to give
that to someone who does.
This implies a Buddhist monk who doesn't value money should give his money to a financier who
does value it (a.k.a. Nozick monster).
o Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. If a person isn't made unhappy by giving up money, this
shouldn't be an issue. Once a person reaches a level where he/she is unable to sustain a living,
presumably his/her happiness will diminish and more funds will be allocated in that direction until
an equilibrium is reached.
Implies a sadist should be allowed to kill a person who does not value his/her own life.
o We can either argue that this doesn't matter (a person who doesn't want to live should be allowed
to die), or we could sidestep the issue and say that laws could still be put in place to forbid killing
at the cost of minor decreases in the overall happiness.
Hard to quantify happiness.
o True. We can argue for the use a common sense principle where an action is taken only when it
is known to increase the apparent happiness of the society.
People are not awarded based on their actual contributions.
o Because utilitarianism is based off of happiness and not income, they will be awarded best on
what makes the overall group of workers (and therefore society) most happy. If a person feels
unsatisfied with their award, their happiness will decrease and at some point an equilibrium will
again be reached.








Karl Marx
His philosophies and economic theories are nowcalled Marxism
Ph.D. in Greek Literature
Couldnt get a university position; became ajournalist
Main work: Three volumes: Capital (Das Kapital) theLabor Theory of Value
Positive Aspects:
Asserts that people should not be able to makeincome because they are wealthy
Asserts that people should not be rewarded fromthreatening to withhold their capital from production
Negative Aspects (Not Predictive):
No role for consumer demand
No role for capital as an input
Additional Marxist Critique
Alienation: Under capitalism, workers produce butdont have control rights to control the
productionprocess. They are alienated from the means ofproduction.
Marxist Solution to Alienation: WorkplaceDemocracy workers get to choose how toproduce (worker
cooperatives do this).
Note: Marx was against private property whichmeans private ownership of production notprivate
ownership of consumer goods.



Opening statement main points:
Everyone wants to be happy
Humans are constantly trying to achieve happiness throughout their lifetime. ]
Utilitarianism adopts the idea that happiness is what needs to be emphasized when distributing
goods amongst individuals
Why is there constant struggle over large amounts of economic disparity when utilitarianism offers the
solution to attempt to make the most people happy as possible?
People who are unhappy with their situation cause unrest and struggle between groups who
have/dont have utilitarianism provides a solution to this