The Empirical Pitfalls of Utilitarianism (2011)

Undergraduate: Corey Cusimano

Faculty Advisor: Jan Boxill
Department: Philosophy

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Utilitarianism is the moral doctrine that claims that an action is right if and only if it produces the most good. Early theorists, like John Stuart Mill, claimed that the “good” was pleasure and that the right action maximized pleasure and minimized pain. In the past several decades empirical psychologists have studied the cognitive mechanisms of happiness. I present some important findings and modern theories – including information about affective forecasting and the hedonic treadmill – and argue that, given these empirical facts about our psychology, Utilitarianism as a moral theory is in deep, intuitive trouble. There is ample evidence that we are unable to use considerations about future states of happiness accurately in practical reasoning. I also argue that the moral answers provided by utilitarianism are too unintuitive to be an acceptable moral theory. We need a more sophisticated account of the “good” if we are to maintain a consequentialist viewpoint.