Individual Sacrifice and the Greatest Happiness: Bentham on Utility and Rights
This article considers Bentham's response to the criticism of utilitarianism that it allows for and may even require the sacrifice of some members of society in order to increase overall happiness. It begins with the contrast between the principle of utility and the contrasting principle of sympathy and antipathy to show that Bentham regarded the main achievement of his principle as overcoming the subjectivity he found in all other philosophical theories. This subjectivism, especially prevalent in theories of rights, might well lead to the sacrifice of the individual. The principle of utility was presented as an ‘objective’ theory that avoided the difficulties of other moral and political theories. The article also considers the importance of universally applicable ends, such as security and equality, as part of the principle of utility, and especially Bentham's view of maximizing pleasure as being a distributive rather than an aggregative idea. The article concludes by criticizing H. L. A. Hart's interpretation of the role of equality and rights in Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and argues that Mill's doctrine of moral rights builds on foundations originally established by Bentham, foundations which would preclude the sacrifice of individuals.
Multi-Dimensional Utility and the Index Number Problem: Jeremy Bentham, J. S. Mill, and Qualitative Hedonism
This article develops an unconventional perspective on the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill in at least four areas. First, it is shown that both authors conceived of utility as irreducibly multi-dimensional, and that Bentham in particular was very much aware of the ambiguity that multi-dimensionality imposes upon optimal choice under the greatest happiness principle. Secondly, I argue that any attribution of intrinsic worth to any form of human behaviour violates the first principles of Bentham's and Mill's utilitarianism, and that this renders both authors immune to the claim by G. E. Moore that they committed a ‘naturalistic fallacy’. Thirdly, in light of these contentions, I find no flaw in Mill's ‘proof of utility’. Fourthly, I use the notion of intrapersonal utility weights to provide an interpretation of Mill's qualitative hedonism that is entirely consistent with his value monism.
Turbine blade temperature calculation and life estimation - a sensitivity analysis
Abstract The overall operating cost of the modern gas turbines is greatly influenced by the durability of hot section components operating at high temperatures. In turbine operating conditions, some defects may occur which can decrease hot section life. In the present paper, methods used for calculating blade temperature and life are demonstrated and validated. Using these methods, a set of sensitivity analyses on the parameters affecting temperature and life of a high pressure, high temperature turbine first stage blade is carried out. Investigated uncertainties are: (1) blade coating thickness, (2) coolant inlet pressure and temperature (as a result of secondary air system), and (3) gas turbine load variation. Results show that increasing thermal barrier coating thickness by 3 times, leads to rise in the blade life by 9 times. In addition, considering inlet cooling temperature and pressure, deviation in temperature has greater effect on blade life. One of the interesting points that can be realized from the results is that 300 hours operation at 70% load can be equal to one hour operation at base load.