Question

Bernard Williams argues that utilitarianism is incompatible with integrity. Explain this objection in detail, making use of one of Williams’ examples. What might a utilitarian say in response? Is this objection fatal?

Answer 1

Bernard Williams argue that each individual is responsible for their own moral action and integrity lies in their own part. He states that utilitarianism promotes negative responsibility that take away the individual's strong mental strength for morality, and lays stess on consequences and maximization of happinesses. He elaborates this through an example in which an individual named Pedro offers Jim a proposal where he has to kill an Indian to save the llfe of other nineteen Indians , who would other wise be killed by Pedro. The dilemma of Jim from the perspective of utilitarianism is that he should kill one Indian to save the life of other 19. But for Jim the dilemma is that he would be held guilty by his conscience for his life time and if he avoids killing then Pedro would kill all the twenty Indian. This is described as negative responsibility by Williams. He argue that for this situation if anybody is to be blamed then it should be Pedro because it's his morality that should be considered responsible for the killings and not of Jim's.