Assignment: History of Citi

Rashed Al Ahmad Tarique ZR-61, BBA 16th Batch Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka 23rd March, 2011

Utilitarianism is a concept integral to normative ethics. It describes an action to be right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happinessnot just the happiness of the performer of the action but also that of everyone affected by it. Such a theory is in opposition to egoism, the view that a person should pursue his own self-interest, even at the expense of others, and to any ethical theory that regards some acts or types of acts as right or wrong independently of their consequences. Utilitarianism also differs from ethical theories that make the rightness or wrongness of an act dependent upon the motive of the agent; for, according to the Utilitarian, it is possible for the right thing to be done from a bad motive.The concept of Utilitarianism stems from eighteenth and nineteenth century philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Utilitarianism is an effort to provide an answer to the practical question What ought a man to do? Its answer is that he ought to act so as to produce the best consequences possible. Bentham's moral theory was founded on the assumption that it is the consequences of human actions that count in evaluating their merit and that the kind of consequence that matters for human happiness is just the achievement of pleasure and avoidance of pain. He argued that the hedonistic value of any human action is easily calculated by considering how intensely its pleasure is felt, how long that pleasure lasts, how certainly and how quickly it follows upon the performance of the action, and how likely it is to produce collateral benefits and avoid collateral harms. Taking such matters into account, we arrive at a net value of each action for any human being affected by it. All that remains, Bentham supposed, is to consider the extent of this pleasure, since the happiness of the community as a whole is nothing other than the sum of individual human interests. The principle of utility, then, defines the meaning of moral obligation by reference to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people who are affected by performance of an action. Similarly, Bentham supposed that social policies are properly evaluated in light of their effect on the general well-being of the populations they involve. Punishing criminals is an effective way of deterring crime precisely because it pointedly alters the likely outcome of their actions, attaching the likelihood of future pain in order to outweigh the apparent gain of committing the crime. Thus, punishment must "fit" the crime by changing the likely perception of the value of committing it. A generation later, utilitarianism found its most effective exponent in John Stuart Mill. Mill not only argued in favor of the basic principles of Jeremy Bentham but also offered several significant improvements to its structure, meaning, and application. Although the progress of moral philosophy has been limited by its endless disputes over the reality and nature of the highest good, Mill assumed from the outset, everyone can agree that the consequences of human actions contribute importantly to their moral value. Mill fully accepted Bentham's devotion to greatest happiness principle as the basic statement of utilitarian value: " . . . actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure."

Assignment: History of Citi

Rashed Al Ahmad Tarique ZR-61, BBA 16th Batch Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka 23rd March, 2011

Adam Smith (1723-1790), Scottish social philosopher and political economist, is often accepted as the founder of the modern understanding of economics. Adam Smith became famous with his masterpiece An Inquiry Into The Nature And Causes Of The Wealth Of Nations in which he analyzed basic economic structure of 18th century world and determined principles of freemarket economics. Adam Smith in his book talks about sympathy, a tendency to experience certain feelings when we see another person in a certain situation. He also gives examples of this type of feeling: the pity and the compassion. He claims that even selfish people have this kind of feelings and all human beings sometimes put themselves in other peoples places and experience their pain or happiness. According to this view, poor people should sometimes feel happy by thinking themselves at rich peoples situations or by experiencing their happiness virtually. Vice versa, rich people should sometimes feel sad and distressed while observing or thinking poor peoples sufferings and difficult life conditions. In other part of his book, Adam Smith tries to clarify that we can have pleasure or pain not only from self-interested considerations but also from others situations. Also, he asserts that the correspondence of peoples mutual feelings can be a source of pleasure. Likewise, the lack of this correspondence can make people sad as a source of pain. In addition, he says that we have tendency to want to be worthy of the approval of others. He reveals that we are more likely to discuss with our friends our disagreeable passions rather than agreeable ones. These concepts of sympathy and mutual sympathy make Smith for some people a close thinker to utilitarianism. When we analyze Smiths views with regard to the notion of utility, we can say that it is our nature to think also other people because we are social livings and no matter how selfish we are; we will still share other peoples emotions due to the effect of the sympathy. So, in his understanding all people are at some degree utilitarian because they think other peoples situations as well as their situations. He can also defend the capitalist system and the freemarket as a way to reach utilitarianism. In his understanding of utility, capitalism and freemarket economics will make the whole society happy and hopeful, some group of people by providing richness and material power and the rest of the society by giving hope and chance to develop themselves. For example, workers would not be rich on material basis but they will not feel sad due to the effect of sympathy. They will know that they can develop themselves and they will feel happy by looking at rich peoples life standards and possibilities. Rich people also will share the negative feelings of poor people and they will try to help them at the same time they will try to preserve their situation by working hard. Moreover, the very existence of competition in free-market system would allow people to produce maximum amount of goods or happiness in a free environment without any restrictions (laissez-faire laissez-passer). The maximum amount of happiness in his view can be obtained through capitalist system and the use of free market. Finally, it would not be wrong to assert that Adam Smiths liberal pro-market stance could also be considered as a version of utilitarianism but there are also many other versions of utilitarianism such as socialism and social democracy. All ideologies present themselves as producing best consequences and maximum amount of happiness for their society but the important is to lift the lid off and to detect social realities. Sources:

Assignment: History of Citi

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Rashed Al Ahmad Tarique ZR-61, BBA 16th Batch Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka 23rd March, 2011

http://www.utilitarianism.com/utilitarianism.html http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/utilitarianism.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091122104244AAnWtsG http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=30731 http://www.utilitarian.org/definitions.html http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/5q.htm http://home.mira.net/~andy/works/sen.htm