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According to act utilitarianism, you are required to perform the action which maximizes overall happiness, that is, the overall amount of happiness. However, it faces objections from two directions; first, from the personal concerns, and second from the moral principles concerning justice, rights, and equality, which all rest on the individual.In order to properly interpret these ideas I will use hypothetical exams, and give my view on the situation along with those of what I believe Mill would do.
In order to begin interpreting these examples we must first learn some of the doctrine's of utilitarianism that deal with justice. One widely used doctrine is the doctrine of negative responsibility. This doctrine states that you (or the individual partaking in the example/event) are responsible for things that he/she fails to prevent as they are for things they might bring upon themselves. So, for example, you do not want to slaughter a pig because you feel that it is wrong. Ultimately someone will slaughter that pig, and whether or not you decided to do it or have someone else do it you are still responsible for the death of the pig. As utilitarianism sees it, you are responsible for an event no matter what your decision is. Different philosophers such as Williams believe that it would be an obvious decision to shoot the pig. However, this is only true in 'single-level' versions of act utilitarianism. Mill on the other hand, uses a multi-level version of act utilitarianism. Multi-level versions suggest that people should use customary moral principles to guide their action. As discussed in previous papers, rule utilitarianism states that the right action agrees with a set of rules that are generally accepted in their society or culture. This multi-level version of utilitarianism sounds like it is more of rule utilitarianism rather than act utilitarianism. So for the sake of this paper I will classify Mill as being a rule utilitarian.
Now with doctrines and views aside we may look at certain examples that, I believe, will help describe, interpret, and clarify justice in a utilitarian point of view. Keep in mind that Mill believes that individuals justice origins from their conformity to law. Simply stating that individuals already have a picture of what is just and what is not by the laws and religions they follow in their society. This I believe is entirely true. Therefore, some of my views on certain situations may quite similar to Mill's.
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Example one deals with Ralph and Carl. Ralph is a qualified physicist with a wife and two young children who is finding it hard to find a job. One of Ralph's friends tell him he can get him a job working for the government designing a particle accelerator that will be the driving force in the development of a weapon of mass destruction. Ralph has a neutral opinion on war, but strongly feels against weapons that needlessly murder many civilians. Ralph's friend informs him that if he does not take the job someone else will take the job and eventually the research and weapon will be produced.
Carl is on an excursion in South Africa. As he is hiking through the woods one day and he finds that a brutal military leader has lined up ten random tribesmen. The military leader tells Carl that he is going to kill these 10 men. However, the military leader gives Carl a choice; if Carl picks one tribesman to be shot the otherwill be let free. If he does not then they all die.
What to do what to do? Before we divulge into Mill's theory lets see what other philosopher's have had to say in similar situations. Bernard Williams, who began what is known as the "integrity objection" would state that Ralph should take the job and Carl should shoot the tribesman. Again these choices should be obvious according to Williams, and as stated above, these fall under the single-level versions of act utilitarianism. If Ralph does not take the job and the weapon is produced and kills a million people Ralph is still held responsible for the deaths of those people because of the negative responsibility doctrine of utilitarianism.
In order to describe Mill's view on justice we must use another example. This example and many derivations that have been used in class therefore it will best suit my needs for explaining Mill's take on justice. The "escape goat" example is a quite simple one. Let's say a police chief is in charge of a town that has a serial killer on the loose. The town is becoming afraid and angry at the chief for not catching the serial killer and keeping the town safe. The chief has two options. The first option is that he could find an innocent person (the escape goat) to pin the murders on so that the town will feel safe and maximize the town's overall happiness. Or, he can stay honest and continue looking for the real serial killer as the town becomes more and more enraged.
Mill would not agree that pinning the murders on an escape goat would not benefit the town because it may very well backfire on the chief. What if the serial killer struck again after the chief proclaimed he caught the serial killer? Or if the word leaked out that the chief had pinned the murders on an innocent person? The credibility of the chief would disappear, and now he has made the town even madder at him than they were to begin with.
My view agrees with Mill's on this situation. I believe that by pinning the murder on an innocent person would hurt his town rather than helping it. By pinning the murder on someone undeserving he will lull his town into a false sense of security which will leave the citizens more prone to an attack. Now if the word got out that he did just pin the murders on an innocent person not only will the town be disgusted with him, but they will find it very hard to believe him the next time he actually catches the real criminal. So not only is he hurting his town, but he is hurting himself in the long run. Short term happiness is maximized however; long term happiness is drastically minimized.
In chapter five Mill describes the origin of our sense of justice. Mill's argument is very persuasive and agreeable. He believes that morality has its origin in conformity to law. That first the laws were set and then the notion of legal obligation began to take place. This obligation to follow these laws created a sense of or moral obligation. Because it was felt that those laws ought to exist. Mill differentiates between perfect and imperfect obligations. An imperfect obligation, such as being generous, are actions that if done would be considered "nice". Perfect obligations are cases in which we are expected to act. So giving money or food to a beggar on the street would be considered, in our society, as an imperfect obligation. Not killing that beggar would be considered a perfect obligation.
The clear line Mill draws in order to separate different actions is hard to adapt to every society. Let's say there is a tribe that deems it a crime not to help out your fellow man even if he is begging for money. Giving that beggar money is no longer an imperfect obligation but rather a perfect one. How about the other extreme? Let's say that the society that finds aided suicide as a "generous" action. The society feels that helping end someone's misery is a very nice action. Now murder becomes an imperfect obligation. In another example abortion can be looked at as an imperfect obligation.It is not universally accepted as the right course of action. All doctors do not have to offer the service. Yes, it is a law that a woman is free to choose an abortion. But that does not make it morally right. Therefore doctors may choose to offer the service or not to offer the service. The doctors that feel it is totally a woman's right and feel that it is a valuable service that should be available are the ones who practice abortions. Those who oppose abortions stay clear of it. I believe this makes abortion an imperfect obligation. Everyone is not expected to abide by it therefore; it cannot be a perfect obligation.
As you can see, utilitarianism is a weak theory if it only stands on the notion of doing what will maximize general happiness. You have many different situations to where attempting to maximize the short term happiness will lead to a sharp decline in the long run happiness. Then you have moral obligations witch encompass rule utilitarianism. People feel obligated to follow a set of rules that have, over time, been set to be the moral standard. And from these obligations we derive perfect and imperfect obligations. Mill's perfect and imperfect obligations are somewhat hard to make universal. What is considered moral differs from tribe to tribe. Therefore, it may be a perfect obligation to be nice to everyone. Then there would be no imperfect obligations because you are forced to be nice to everyone. It is a very odd and confusing subject that, I believe, even Mill has a hard time adequately arguing. I believe Mill's arguments on justice and obligations steer him away from his act utilitarian label. I believe that this proof, although not conclusive, shows Mill as a rule utilitarian.
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