Utilitarianism

Summary

This script explores the role of utilitarianism in guiding political and moral decisions, using the case of a dam project in Malaysia's rainforest. It delves into the utilitarian philosophy's focus on maximizing happiness and minimizing suffering, questioning whether it justifies large-scale projects with significant environmental and social impacts. The script features discussions on the utilitarian views of philosophers like Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and debates the theory's complexities, including the challenges of predicting consequences and comparing happiness across individuals. It also touches on the intrinsic value of nature and the moral standing of non-human entities, highlighting the philosophical and ethical dilemmas in balancing economic development with environmental preservation.

Takeaways

• 🌳 The script discusses the ethical dilemma of building a dam in the rainforest of Borneo, Malaysia, which would displace villages and destroy rainforests but also provide economic benefits.
• 💭 It introduces utilitarianism, an ethical theory that judges actions based on their consequences, aiming to maximize happiness and minimize suffering for the greatest number of people.
• 👤 The utilitarian movement was founded by Jeremy Bentham, who proposed that laws and social policies should be designed to maximize pleasure and minimize pain in society.
• 🤔 The script highlights the challenges of applying utilitarianism in real-world situations, such as predicting the future consequences of actions and making interpersonal comparisons of happiness.
• 🌐 It raises questions about the role of cultural and individual values in utilitarian decision-making, especially in the context of development and environmental conservation.
• 🔍 The script explores the idea of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures, suggesting that not all forms of happiness are equal and that quality of life matters.
• 🌱 The debate over whether nature has intrinsic value or is merely a means to human happiness is presented, with some arguing for the protection of the environment for its own sake.
• 🐘 Bentham's view on animals as sentient beings with interests, such as avoiding pain, is discussed, challenging the traditional utilitarian perspective that only human interests matter.
• 🏛️ The script mentions the Auto-icon of Jeremy Bentham, his preserved body displayed at University College London, symbolizing his lasting influence on utilitarian thought.
• 🌟 It touches on the concept of 'ideal utilitarianism', which expands on traditional utilitarianism by considering other intrinsic goods beyond pleasure, such as art and love.

Q & A

What is the main ethical theory discussed in the script?

The main ethical theory discussed in the script is Utilitarianism, which is rooted in the idea of maximizing happiness and minimizing pain for the greatest number of people.

Who is the founder of the utilitarian movement mentioned in the script?

The founder of the utilitarian movement mentioned in the script is Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher from the late 18th century.

What was Jeremy Bentham's central proposal regarding laws and social policies?

Jeremy Bentham's central proposal was to design all laws and social policies with the goal of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain in society, without favoritism to individuals.

What is the significance of the Bakun Dam project in the context of the script?

The Bakun Dam project in Malaysia is used as a case study to illustrate the application of utilitarianism in making difficult political and moral decisions, such as weighing the economic benefits against the environmental costs.

How does the script address the issue of sacrificing one group's happiness for the benefit of the larger society?

The script discusses the utilitarian approach to sacrificing one group's happiness for the benefit of the larger society by considering whether the total balance of pain and pleasure justifies such a decision.

What is the role of the multinational company ABB in the script's discussion?

ABB, a multinational company, is mentioned as eagerly awaiting approval of a large contract related to the Bakun Dam project, highlighting the economic interests involved in such large-scale projects.

How does the script connect the utilitarian theory to the broader Enlightenment movement?

The script connects utilitarian theory to the Enlightenment movement by emphasizing the importance of reason over custom or traditional authority in making ethical decisions.

What is the contribution of John Stuart Mill to the utilitarian movement as discussed in the script?

John Stuart Mill, a 19th-century English philosopher, contributed to the utilitarian movement by introducing the idea that not all pleasures are equal and that quality matters, arguing for 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures.

How does the script explore the challenges in applying utilitarianism to real-world scenarios?

The script explores the challenges in applying utilitarianism by discussing the difficulties in predicting future consequences, making interpersonal comparisons of happiness, and the complexity of weighing different kinds of values.

What is the script's stance on the intrinsic value of nature in utilitarianism?

The script presents a debate within utilitarianism about whether nature has intrinsic value or is merely a means to human happiness, with some philosophers arguing for the former and others, like Bentham, rejecting it.

How does the script reflect on the practical implications of utilitarianism in decision-making?

The script reflects on the practical implications of utilitarianism by discussing the complexities and potential for error in calculating the greatest good for the greatest number, especially in the context of large-scale projects like the Bakun Dam.

Outlines

00:00

🌳 Ethical Dilemmas in Development: The Bakun Dam Debate

The script opens with a discussion on the philosophical guidance for making complex political and moral decisions, exemplified by the contentious Bakun Dam project in Malaysia. It raises questions about the ethics of development, environmental impact, and the potential displacement of communities. The Prime Minister of Malaysia defends the project as a necessary step towards industrialization, while critics argue for the protection of the environment and the rights of indigenous people. The utilitarian ethical theory is introduced as a framework for evaluating such decisions based on their consequences.

05:03

📚 Utilitarianism and the Pursuit of Happiness

This section delves into the utilitarian philosophy, founded by Jeremy Bentham, which posits that the best actions are those that maximize happiness and minimize suffering. Bentham's ideas are explored through his life, his work on legal and social reforms, and his utilitarian theory. The narrative also touches on the preservation of Bentham's body at University College London, symbolizing his lasting influence on ethical thought. The utilitarian approach to ethical decision-making is contrasted with other moral philosophies, emphasizing its focus on outcomes over adherence to abstract principles.

10:05

📈 Balancing Pleasure and Pain: The Utilitarian Calculus

The script continues with a discussion on the practical application of utilitarianism, particularly in the context of the Bakun Dam. It considers the challenges of predicting the future consequences of actions and the difficulty of making interpersonal comparisons of happiness. John Stuart Mill's contributions to utilitarianism are highlighted, introducing the idea of qualitative differences in pleasures and the importance of individual happiness beyond mere quantification. The narrative also addresses the complexity of applying utilitarian principles to real-world issues, such as the trade-offs involved in large-scale development projects.

15:06

🌱 Environmental Ethics and Intrinsic Values

This part of the script explores the extension of utilitarian thought to environmental ethics, questioning whether nature has intrinsic value beyond its utility to humans. It contrasts the views of philosophers who argue for the moral standing of nature with those who adhere to a more traditional utilitarian perspective that prioritizes human welfare. The narrative also touches on the challenges of incorporating environmental values into utilitarian calculations and the potential for conflicts between ecological preservation and human development.

20:07

🐘 Sentience and the Moral Considerability of Animals

The script examines the utilitarian view on animal rights and the moral consideration of non-human sentient beings. It discusses the implications of recognizing animals' capacity to feel pain and pleasure, and how this affects the moral community. The narrative also addresses the ethical considerations surrounding the treatment of animals in the context of development projects, such as the Bakun Dam, and the broader implications for our understanding of the value of all life forms.

25:10

🏛️ The Legacy of Utilitarianism in Modern Philosophy

The final section of the script reflects on the ongoing relevance and evolution of utilitarianism in contemporary philosophy. It considers the challenges and criticisms faced by utilitarianism, including its perceived harshness in justifying the sacrifice of individual interests for the greater good. The narrative also touches on the role of utilitarianism in political decision-making and its capacity to engage with complex ethical dilemmas, such as those presented by large-scale development projects and environmental conservation.

Keywords

💡Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that judges actions based on their consequences, aiming to maximize overall happiness or pleasure and minimize pain. In the video, utilitarianism is used to evaluate the morality of building a dam in the rainforest of Borneo, considering whether the benefits for the nation's economic growth outweigh the environmental and social costs. The script discusses how utilitarianism, founded by Jeremy Bentham, is applied to complex decisions like this, where the greatest good for the greatest number is the guiding principle.

💡Consequentialism

Consequentialism is the idea that the morality of an action is determined by its outcome or consequence. It is closely related to utilitarianism, as both focus on the results of actions. The video script uses consequentialism to explore the ethical implications of the dam project, questioning whether the predicted economic benefits justify the environmental harm and displacement of people.

💡Intrinsic Value

Intrinsic value refers to the inherent worth or value of something in itself, regardless of its usefulness or purpose for something else. The script debates whether nature, such as the rainforest in Borneo, has intrinsic value, or if it is merely a means to achieve human happiness. This concept is central to the environmental ethics discussion within the video, contrasting with utilitarian views that prioritize human welfare.

💡Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher and the founder of utilitarianism. The video discusses his ideas, which主张 maximizing happiness and minimizing suffering as the ultimate goals of law and social policy. Bentham's utilitarian theory is used to frame the ethical debate over the dam project, illustrating how his principles might be applied to modern political and moral decisions.

💡John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was a 19th-century English philosopher who contributed to utilitarianism by introducing the concept of 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures, suggesting that not all pleasures are equal and that quality of life matters. The video script mentions Mill's refinement of Bentham's theory, indicating a more nuanced approach to utilitarianism that takes into account the quality of happiness, not just its quantity.

💡Deep Ecology

Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that emphasizes the inherent value of all living beings and ecosystems, advocating for their protection regardless of human interests. The video mentions the deep ecology movement, founded by Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss, which opposes the utilitarian view that nature is merely a resource for human use. This concept is relevant to the debate over the dam, as it challenges the idea that environmental destruction is acceptable for economic gain.

💡Environmental Ethics

Environmental ethics is a branch of philosophy that explores the moral relationship between humans and the natural world. The video script delves into this topic through the debate on the dam's impact on the rainforest, questioning the rights of future generations and non-human species. It reflects on whether development should prioritize human interests at the expense of the environment.

💡Sacrifice

In the context of the video, sacrifice refers to the act of giving up something of value for the sake of a greater good or the interests of others. The script discusses the utilitarian concept of sacrifice, where it may be morally justifiable to harm or disadvantage a few for the benefit of many. This is exemplified in the debate over the dam, where the sacrifice of local communities and the environment is weighed against the potential economic benefits for Malaysia.

💡Economic Growth

Economic growth is a central theme in the video, as it is one of the main justifications for the dam project. It refers to the increase in a country's economic output and wealth over time. The script contrasts the pursuit of economic growth with the potential environmental and social costs, reflecting on whether the utilitarian goal of maximizing happiness necessarily aligns with the pursuit of material wealth.

💡Indigenous Rights

Indigenous rights pertain to the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain their cultural traditions, land, and way of life. The video script touches on this concept in discussing the displacement of 30 villages due to the dam project, highlighting the conflict between development and the rights of indigenous communities to live in their ancestral lands without interference.

💡Diversity

Diversity in the video refers to the variety of life forms and ecosystems, particularly in the context of the rainforest's biodiversity. The script debates whether diversity is a value in itself or merely a means to an end, such as human happiness or aesthetic pleasure. This concept is central to the environmental ethics discussion, as it challenges the utilitarian view that only human interests matter.

Highlights

Philosophy's role in guiding political and moral decisions.

Ethical dilemma of building a dam in the rainforest of Borneo.

Broad Outlook on third-world development and technology aspirations.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia's defense of the Bakun Dam project.

Utilitarianism as an ethical theory for balancing costs and benefits.

Jeremy Bentham's foundational utilitarian principles.

The importance of considering consequences in utilitarian decision-making.

Critique of utilitarianism for potentially justifying harmful means to achieve ends.

John Stuart Mill's refinement of utilitarianism with qualitative pleasures.

The challenge of quantifying and comparing happiness.

The impact of economic recession on the Bakun Dam project's feasibility.

Utilitarianism's demand for empirical knowledge and its limitations.

Critique of utilitarianism for underestimating the complexity of consequences.

George Edward Moore's ideal utilitarianism and the intrinsic value of art and love.

Debate on whether nature has intrinsic value independent of human happiness.

The deep ecology movement and its stance against environmental devastation.

The utilitarian view on animal sentience and moral consideration.

The utilitarian approach to the dilemma of sacrificing individual interests for the greater good.

The examined life series and its educational offerings.

Transcripts

[Laughter]

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what

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[Applause]

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can philosophy guide us in making

difficult political and moral decisions

is it right for example to build a huge

dam for a power plant deep in the

rainforest of Borneo in Malaysia

oh

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I think we should

uh have a very broad Outlook very broad

Outlook what's going on in the third

world is it really so that they look

forward to be like us that they look

forward to have our technology or high

standard of living and so

on so there we have a great job in

cooperation with a minority in the third

world to reject

this grandiose

enormous and

um very harmful

projects if the benefits are large

enough can any political decision be

justified the prime minister of Malaysia

has defended the dam project against

environmentalist critics saying you in

the west cannot control the development

of our country

we have a plan to transform Malaysia

into a fully industrialized Nation

before the year

2020 the bakon dam is part of that

[Music]

plan you want us to be preserved like in

a museum you want to keep the good life

for yourself and you want us to be held

back at the different sort of life that

we

have the project is already underway and

and the multinational company ABB is

eagerly awaiting approval of a large

contract 30 Villages would be evacuated

10,000 people moved and more than

150,000 Acres of rainforest

destroyed opponents of the dam argue

that these transformations of the

environment will do irreparable harm

Defenders counter that such costs will

be far outweighed by benefits such as

economic growth for the entire nation

this sort of balancing of costs against

benefits has roots in an ethical Theory

called

utilitarianism I think the most

important thing about being a

utilitarian is that you judge actions in

accordance with their consequences

things are not just right or wrong in

themselves irrespective of the

difference they make in the world and I

think that it's important that we make a

difference in the world uh and not that

we stick by some abstract principle

which might say for example always tell

the truth um but then might have

disastrous consequences for everyone and

and I see no point in sticking by a

principle without paying attention to

the consequences of what you're doing so

that's the first and most important

aspect for me of being a

utilitarian the utilitarian movement was

founded in the late 18th century by the

English philosopher Jeremy

benam he came from a family of lawyers

and was trained to be a lawyer but he

didn't practice the profession instead

he dedicated himself to the reform of

the British legal system and social

policy bentham's Central proposal was

deceptively simple he wrote Nature has

placed mankind under the government of

two Sovereign Masters pain and pleasure

it is for them alone to point out what

we ought to

do benam proposed designing all laws and

social policies with one goal maximize

the amount of pleasure in society and

minimize the amount of pain show no

favoritism to individuals but seek only

to bring about the greatest happiness

for the greatest

number philosopher Ro boss Harrison has

written a book about benam the

importance of Bentham is he really

worked out a utilitarian Theory so it

wasn't just the starting point but you

developed what that actually was and

then applied it to lots of different

areas I mean you got a psychological

theory you got a value Theory you put

them together you get a theory of

politics of law of society and it's that

whole development that makes benam

important benam was a child of the

Enlightenment although he dealt with

emotionally charged issues he proposed

resolving them entirely through reason

he totally opposed maintaining policies

simply on the grounds of custom or

traditional

Authority the big Enlightenment thing is

a questioning operation is to say well

why what justifies what point I mean why

are these the right things to do they

are the things that have happened

they've got custom but if we ask for

reason R than custom why we should do

these things then we got to think of a

new way

of justifying or establishing them and

we got to aw produce straight New

Foundations not take authority not take

the facts written in some book sacred or

otherwise I mean it might be Aristotle

might be the Bible not take authority

not take the book not take the custom or

anything like that we've got to try and

take some

reason if we reason as benam suggested

how will we come out on a decision such

as whether or not to build the bakon dam

how can we calculate which course will

truly lead to the greatest happiness for

the greatest

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number I think the only way to reason is

to try to predict the effects as far as

possible on everyone involved uh now and

future and not only human beings but

also non-human sentient beings animals

who may live in the forests that are

destroyed by the project uh and try to

estimate whether the benefits will be

clearly greater than the consequences

what will be the consequences of

building the dam will it make a majority

of the Malaysian people happier by

giving them a higher standard of

living if happiness is measured in

economic terms the answer is probably

yes but not everybody in Malaysia dreams

of a modern life in the

city we've seen how people live in the

city they make little money and cannot

support their families here we live from

the soil and we have everything we

want can we sacrifice the happiness of

one group for the benefit of the larger

society is the total balance of pain and

pleasure the only thing that

counts benam founded University col

College London at his bequest his body

is preserved there I one thing people

know about or find surprising is

bentham's desire to preserve himself as

a physical body the so-called Auto icon

in in um University College

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London benam himself is actually there

in a sort of telephone box sort of glass

fronted thing and then there's this body

inside which is bentham's body it's not

actually his head though he tried to get

his head preserved by studying the sort

of New Zealand head shrinkers and

preservation but the thing looks so

ghastly they took it off after 10 years

and and put a sort of wax head on top

but you've actually got the skeleton

there dressed in bentham's clothes and

um deaf it is now but you get um

celebratory dinners sometimes University

College and they bring benam along to

the dinner so you say you know you've

got your chance of coming to dinner and

benam will be there as well

the second great figure in the

utilitarian movement was the 19th

century English philosopher John Stewart

Mill Mill's father was a friend and

follower of benam and he put his son

through a rigorous education starting

with Greek at age three Latin at age 7

and a strong dose of utilitarian Theory

and when Mill was a young man he got

together some like-minded people and

they all believe very strong strongly in

benam when they were all very young men

trying to solve the world and they met

together in bentham's house I me James

Bill lived next door they met in

bentham's house and they were in little

Society promoting bentham's ideas they

called themselves the utilitarians but

at the age of 20 Mill suffered a nervous

breakdown as he later wrote the habit of

analysis has a tendency to wear away the

feelings as he recovered he set about

writing the balance in his life

mil I think through all his life was a

very open character he wanted to combine

lots of different kinds of thought he

was putting together the best of the

18th century the best of the 19th

century so he's a compromising thinker

and and respect to if you could sort

press it onto the mental crisis the

thought if I just try to aim at the

greatest happiness the greatest number

at least is conceived by benam I myself

am not going to be happy there's more to

life than that and as he conceived it

the more to life was poetry

as he recovered Mill also diverged from

the ideas of benam for benam there was

only one standard of value whether it's

called pleasure happiness or utility it

can be

Quantified mil complicates the picture

by arguing that there are higher and

lower Pleasures quality matters in his

words it is better to be a human being

dissatisfied than a pig satisfied

better to be Socrates dissatisfied than

a fool satisfied Through The Years many

philosophers have been attracted to the

basic idea of

utilitarianism to weigh the good against

the bad but they've looked for ways to

add finesse to bentham's simple

quantitative

approach I find that very hard to answer

uh as to whether I'm a utilitarian if

you take traditional definitions of

utilitarianism that all that matter

matters is pleasure and the absence of

pain now I'm certainly not a

utilitarian but utilitarians have

characteristically responded to

criticism not not by rejecting

criticisms but by embracing them with a

kind of bare hug by making their Theory

more and more complex to accommodate the

different criticisms that are made if

you make consequentialism sufficiently

pluralistic and still call it

utilitarianism then you could say that I

was a u

Arian in most people's view finding any

objective measure of Pleasure and Pain

is a difficult problem the problem

becomes vastly more difficult when you

try to compare one person's Pleasures or

pains with those of another there

certainly is a problem about comparing

the happiness of different people it I

think would be a bit absurd to say that

my holiday in Italy made me 2.54 times

as happy as your holiday in Ireland made

you we can't make precise interpersonal

comparisons but still I think as any

parent knows you can sometimes again

make Rough and Ready comparisons a

parent who has to decide uh whether to

spend some money on giving one child a

holiday or sending another child to a

better school does in fact make some

kind of intuitive comparison about which

will matter more in the life of the

particular person we may often get it

wrong we certainly can't do it precisely

but I think again it's too naive to

think that we can't do it at all which

is what the strong case against

utilitarianism sometimes suggests the

Swedish philosopher turun tansu views

utilitarianism as a kind of research

project the basic idea is clear and

simple but the details need to be worked

out in different and complex ways when

asked whether he considers himself a

utilitarian

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replies there are many questions that it

does not answer but the moral truth

points in that direction my belief is

that utilitarianism gives a more

adequate answer than any other moral

theory there are lots of ways to

criticize

utilitarianism it implies certain

consequences which are considered to be

in opposition to our daily morality when

taken to

extremes one reason for criticism is

that utilitarianism asserts that The end

justifies the means there are no actions

which are forbidden in themselves for

instance if one was to kill a person and

it is proved that the consequences are

better than if one was to refuse The

Killing then according to utilitarianism

the killing is the right thing to do

another reason for criticism is that

utilitarianism seems to demand a great

deal from us it demands that we shall

act so as to get the best

consequences utilitarianism requires

that we predict the future consequences

of our actions this is difficult in the

real world in Malaysia there has been a

recession the economy can no longer

support a large scale project such as

the bakon dam the future of the project

is in

doubt utilitarianism Demands a lot of

empirical knowledge to reach even a

plausible opinion this makes you humble

I have sometimes made up my mind on

medical ethical matters but only after

years of study of the question at issue

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there's something about

utilitarianism about its way of

proceeding which invariably

undercounts the the difficulties and

that's because the downside is

invariably much more complex and

difficult to trace than the upside I

mean take this business of moving people

what of course can't be property costed

is their entire embedding in their way

of life the way in which that gives them

a sense of morale and importance in

their lives all the skills that are

going to be totally made irrelevant that

they now have which will be you know

totally wiped out skills which are now

producing important things all that is

not only extremely important to cost but

at a certain moment you just throw up

your hands how do you ever cost that so

invariably this attempt even with the

best will in the world and even in its

own terms is going to leave out

something that is absolutely irrelevant

consequently these projects very often

just even in their own terms are

catastrophically bad to calculate the

downside is always bigger than it was

thought to be and very often the thing

turns out to be a great negative and of

course it's also irreversible so it's a

it's a formula for social

catastrophe at the turn of the 20th

century Cambridge philosopher George

Edward Moore presented a theory called

ideal

utilitarianism he argued that there are

other intrinsic Goods besides Pleasure

Art and love for example are also Goods

that the utilitarian should

maximize More's ideas were a source of

inspiration to a group of intellectuals

in London known as the Bloomsbury

group leading members of the group such

as the writer Virginia wolf her sister

Vanessa Bell the economist John Maynard

KES and the writer Vita Sackville West

extended Moore's

ideas they asserted that only certain

refined States Of Consciousness have

intrinsic

value but are there values that apply

both in London and in the rainforest of

Borneo what about nature does it have a

value of its own an intrinsic value or

is it just a means to human

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happiness you arianism comes out very

strongly on one side of a quite deep

debate about environmental issues some

people think that the world or the

universe or the environment in general

has a kind of moral standing of its own

so that it's intrinsically wrong to

devastate a beautiful Valley even if no

one is ever going to see it for instance

utilitarianism rejects that view totally

all that matters is the impact on human

beings and other conscious beings the

Norwegian philosopher Ares by contrast

holds that nature has a value of its

own I personally feel also that a

mountain have a certain dignity

especially one mountain here in Norway

has a certain dignity that could be

violated you cannot do so and so on top

of this mountains you cannot have any

kind of building and so on it's against

the dignity but that's would be

individual differences

there where you draw the line between

living and not living for me this

mountain is a living

entity does NES go too far when he

claims that a mountain has a moral

standing of its own and that we should

respect its

dignity it's an thought but in the end I

think he makes a serious mistake the

conclusion of his drastic ideas is that

Humanity will have to be

surrendered if one takes into account

these aesthetic values we are very far

from bentham's traditional version of

utilitarianism in the

1970s NES founded the so-called deep

ecology movement to help in the struggle

against building dams and power plants

on the rivers of

Norway it is

mainly to make people aware of things

aware of certain values and make aware

so it's communication with the people

communication with the majority of

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course the prime minister of Norway at

the time later reflected on the

struggles the issues and the difficulty

in trying to predict future energy

needs looking back at the 70s and 80s it

is obvious that the forecasts of rising

energy demand were not completely

Justified it underlines the difficulties

of making energy

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prognoses but that is just trust what

you can see afterwards when you know how

things have

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developed when it comes to

life I think that uh it's not enough

with what I call number one point of

theology movement namely that

each living being has a value in itself

we have also to add a second point about

diversity the manifold the richness that

is something there that that I think is

very very deep going intuition you have

also in life that you wish to conform

but you also Delight in the

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difference oh I don't think diversity is

a value in itself um and the problem

with the stress that ecologists put on

diversity is that it's very unclear what

counts as greater

diversity uh for example if you allow

raw sewage to flow into a uh previously

pristine River you will greatly increase

the number of microbes who exist in that

River um so in one sense you've

enormously increased the diversity

living in the river but um most

ecologists don't value this kind of

diversity so really they owe us an

explanation of precisely what kind of

diversity it is that they value and when

you look at it it usually turns out to

be something that you can understand in

other terms like aesthetic value um of a

richly diverse forest or maybe the

greater stability you get from the

richly diverse Forest but not diversity

in

itself and what about the many life

forms in the Malaysian jungle they too

are affected by the decision about the

dam are they only means to human

happiness or do they count in a

utilitarian appraisal interestingly

benam thought they

should theories about animals being able

to sense pain and pleasure was the main

and revolutionary

question if this is the case then

animals are completely included in the

moral

Community it is still a revolutionary

standpoint if one listens to Peter

Singer and other utilitarian thinkers

who propagate this

view if you re recognize that other

animals are sentient beings then they

have interests for example they have an

interest in not feeling pain you then

have to ask yourself well um does the

fact that the animal is uh a dog or a

pig or a giraffe or a chimpanzee mean

that the pain suffered by that animal is

less significant than a pain suffered by

a member of the species is homo Sapient

and I think you only have to ask

yourself that question to see that the

answer is is no I mean how can it make a

difference to the wrongness of pain

uh just because of the species to which

the being who suffers pain belongs that

doesn't make any more sense to me than

saying that the pain of a uh of a

European is more important than the pain

of an African which is which is clearly

nonsense what is the answer should one

build the dam or

not one might expect utilitarianism to

favor the dam to weigh benefits over

costs instead it suggests reasons pro

and con and perhaps that's its Chief

value to call attention to gains and

sacrifices on all sides and to propose

that we try to weigh

them but real life politics isn't

usually that easy real life politics

usually involves ADV to some at the

suffering of others and utilitarianism

rightly wrongly as one of its harsher

aspects has an account of such sacrifice

or when such sacrifice is Justified when

it's right to sacrifice the interest of

one person for the sake of

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others that's the big argument always in

favor of the other view of the rights

view which is the claim that it would

always be wrong to sacrifice one person

for the sake of others

[Music]

but I think it's an inevitable part of

the word living together at politics

therefore much better it seems to me to

have a theory such as

utilitarismo we can never sacrifice the

interest of some for the sake of others

but R in a reasoned and thoughtful way

tries to work out when it's right to

sacrifice the interest of some set of

others words it takes that problem on

and tries to resolve it r s will never

touch it

[Music]

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