Consequentialism

Consequentialism

Do as much good as you can

Actions are

Deemed moral or immoral from consequences of the particular action. The ends justify the means

Why is an action morally required?

It produces the best overall result.

What is intrinsically good and intrinsically bad?

Happiness and unhappiness

Hedonism

It provides the path forward

Jeremy Bentham

(1748-1832) English, the father of utilitarianism and the inventor of panopticon

What are the key components of utilitarianism

1. an action is judged not by the intended utility created but by the actual utility

2. impartial

3. calculatable

What are the sources of pleasure/pain

physical, political, moral, religious, and sympathy

What consists of the felicific calculus

intensity, duration, certainty, remoteness, fecundity, purity, extent

Intensity

how strong the pleasure being is given

duration

how long the pleasure is lasting

certainty

how likely it is for the pleasure to occur

remoteness

how immediate the pleasure is

fecundity

how likely the pleasure is to lead to more pleasure

Purity

how unique/unrepeatable the pleasure is

extent

how many people that will be effected by the action

Greatest happiness principle

utility principle is not simply to provide the “greatest happiness of the greatest number” (radical view)

Disappointment-prevention principle

stealing can not be justified through felicific calculus” (radical view?)

What are the utilitarian pros?

1. Justifies conventional moral wisdom

2. moral disputes are easily solved, just show your calculus

3. you can be flexible in extreme situations

4. long term reasoning “slippery slope”

5. impartiality was a genuine moral achievement

John Stuart Mill

(1806-1873) English, Follower of Bentham, on Liberty and Utilitarianism, Rule-Utilitarian

Act Utilitarianism

Run the calculus on this particular act

Bentham- every act judged on its own results

Rule Utilitarianism

Follow the rules that maximize utility overall

Mill- don’t lie, do not kill, respect liberty

What are the critiques of Bentham?

felicific calculus allows for certain action to be called moral that are usually viewed as immoral. Utilitarianism is not a practical theory and reduces us to swine

Rules of Utilitarianism

Do not lie, do not kill, freedom of speech must be respected, and government may only intervene with person lives if the harm principle is broken

What does Mill allow?

Benevolent lies

What are the practicality objections?

You can rely on either rules or past experiences for snap judgements. You can defend your actions to a greater extent than with other moral theories

What are the swine objections?

utilitarianism does not reduce us to swine as we are able to recognize higher pleasures through it

Swine objection

Comes from Bentham. If pleasure is all that matters, then a life spent eating, sleeping, and experiencing physical pleasure could be considered just as good as a rich human life.

What pleasures does mill believe in

that pleasures differ in quality, not just quantity

Preference Utilitarianism

Maximize the satisfaction of everyone’s preferences, they are ranked and revealed not measured in hedons

Peter Singer

Australian Philosopher. Famine, Affluence and Morality (1972) All Animals are Equal (1989)

Arguments against Utilitarianism

Still has unwanted conclusions(surgeon objection), impersonal, value disagreement (local vs. world), immeasurable (argument from value measurement), no action is truly right or wrong, and too demanding