• 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.
