PY 4818: Utilitarianism and Global Justice

The central tenets of cosmopolitanism:

   1. Individualism: individuals have moral worth.

        The ultimate units of moral value and of moral concern are individual human beings

         (as opposed to states, etc).

   2. Egalitarianism: they have this moral worth equally.

   3. Universalism: peopleπs equal moral worth generates moral reasons that are binding on   

        everyone. 

The central tenets of utilitarianism:

   1. Consequentialism: The rightness of actions, policies and institutions is determined solely

         by the goodness of their (actual or expected) consequences.  

   2. Welfarism: welfare is the only value of intrinsic moral importance.

   3. Egalitarianism: each personπs welfare has equal moral weight.  

   4. Maximisation: we ought to promote welfare as much as possible.  Bentham: ≥The equal

            greatest happiness of allä≤

    Jones argues that basic interests utilitarianism is the version that is most plausible and of

    most relevance to global justice. 

The two main objections to utilitarianism:

1. It is unreasonably demanding.

    Utilitarian responses:

    i) The focus only on basic interests makes this version of utilitarianism less demanding. 

            Reply: in the current state of the world, this version would still be extremely demanding. 

    ii) Considerations of strategic interaction are paramount in deciding how to implement 

    duties to protect the basic interests of the chronically poor. 

    We ought to endeavour to create and support good-promoting social institutions, since they    

    alone can best protect the basic interests of the chronically poor. Since such institutions can   

    enforce compliance with the duties of aid (through taxation etc), the cost to individual duty-  

    bearers will not be extensive. 

            Reply: a) the duty to create good-promoting institutions is itself extremely demanding.

            b) Utilitarianism requires us to do what would best promote basic interests in the           actual circumstances we face, which might include donations to aid agencies etc.

    iii) Any set of moral requirements must be demanding for some – for us or the chronically poor. 

            The demandingness of utilitarianism is an appropriate response to the current situation.

2. It could permit some personsπ rights to be violated for the sake of the aggregate good.

    Utilitarian response:

    Basic interests utilitarianism will give primary weight to the extent to which personsπ rights are   

    realised; and when rights violations are unavoidable, the appropriate response is to minimise them. 

            Reply: this does not capture the deontological character of rights.