UTILITARIANISM

•   That which produces the maximum benefit for the greatest number of people (e.g. Democracy)

•   Tries to achieve a balance between the good and bad consequences of an action

•   Tries to maximize the well-being of society and emphasizes what will provide the most benefits to the largest group of people

•   This method is fundamental to many types of engineering analysis, including risk- benefit analysis and cost-benefit analysis

Drawbacks:

•    Sometimes what is best for the community as a whole is bad for certain individuals in the community

•    It is often impossible to know in advance which decision will lead to the most good

Organizing Principles to Resolving Ethical Issues

•   Utilitarian thinking

– A standard that promotes those individual actions or rules that produce the greatest total amount of utility to those affected.

–  A code that enjoins engineers to promote the safety, health, and welfare of the public.

–   What is utility, though? Happiness?

•  Preference utilitarianism

– promote those conditions that allow each individual to pursue happiness as he or she conceives it.

–   Two conditions necessary for this: freedom and well-being.

– Practically, for engineers, this advocates cost/benefit analyses.

Problems with Utilitarianism

•   Difficult to quantify benefits for ALL those affected.

•  “Greatest good” difficult to apply to an all-inclusive population.

•   Someone gets “shafted” – approach justifies perpetrating injustice on individuals, i.e., someone gets left out.