Utilitarianism & Kantian Deontology – Week 1 Vocabulary

34 vocabulary flashcards summarizing key terms and thinkers related to Utilitarianism and Kantian Deontology for Week 1 readings.

Utilitarianism

Ethical theory claiming that the morally right action maximizes overall happiness or utility.

Jeremy Bentham

18th-century philosopher who founded Act Utilitarianism and coined the maxim “greatest happiness of the greatest number.”

Act Utilitarianism

Bentham’s view that each individual action should be judged solely by whether it produces the greatest net utility in that specific case.

John Stuart Mill

19th-century philosopher who advanced Rule Utilitarianism and wrote “On Liberty” and the “no-harm” principle.

Rule Utilitarianism

Mill’s view that we should follow moral rules whose general acceptance would maximize utility in the long run.

Fundamental Axiom (Utilitarianism)

“It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.”

Principle of Utility

Standard stating that actions are right if they promote pleasure/happiness and wrong if they produce pain/suffering.

“The end justifies the means”

Utilitarian idea that an action’s morality depends only on the goodness of its outcomes.

Utility

Anything that produces pleasure/happiness or prevents pain/suffering.

Democratic Accountability

Utilitarian claim that rulers must be politically answerable to citizens so their interests coincide with the governed.

No-Harm Principle

Mill’s rule that individuals may act freely unless their actions make others worse off.

Tyranny of the Majority

Madison’s warning that majority interests can oppress minorities, a risk addressed by Rule Utilitarianism.

Higher vs. Lower Pleasures

Mill’s distinction that intellectual and moral pleasures carry more weight than base or bodily ones.

Measurement Problem

Critique that reducing all moral values to a single calculus of happiness oversimplifies human goods.

Individual-Rights Objection

Charge that utilitarianism can justify violating personal rights for the sake of greater aggregate happiness.

Kantian Deontology

Ethical theory focused on duty and motives, judging actions by adherence to moral law rather than consequences.

Immanuel Kant

German Enlightenment philosopher (1724-1804) who formulated the Categorical Imperative.

Age of Enlightenment

18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, science, and individual rights after the Dark Ages.

Categorical Imperative

Kant’s unconditional command: “Live your life as though every act were to become a universal law.”

Hypothetical Imperative

If-then command based on desire (e.g., “If you want X, do Y”); contrasted with Kant’s categorical duty.

Good Will

For Kant, the only unconditionally good thing; the intention to act from duty and respect for moral law.

Ends-in-Themselves Principle

Kant’s rule to treat every person as an end, never merely as a means to one’s own goals.

Motive-Based Morality

Deontological view that the ethical worth of an action lies in the intention behind it.

Duty

Obligation to act according to moral law, giving an action its moral worth in Kantian ethics.

Kant’s Three Absolutes

Always tell the truth, always keep promises, and never commit suicide.

Freedom (Kant)

Autonomy to legislate moral law for oneself through reason, not slavery to desires.

Role of Reason

For Kant, universal, unconditional faculty that reveals moral law independent of happiness.

Consequentialism

Family of theories (e.g., utilitarianism) that evaluate morality solely by outcomes.

Pietism

German Lutheran movement emphasizing personal faith over formal doctrine; influenced Kant’s upbringing.

Machiavellianism

Pragmatic political stance that prioritizes results; summed up in “the end justifies the means.”

Machiavelli’s ‘Ends’ Quote

“Of course the end has to justify the means—why else would you have done it?”

“Better to be Feared than Loved”

Machiavelli’s claim that fear is a safer political tool than affection.

Distributive Issue Critique

Objection that utilitarianism may maximize total welfare while ignoring fairness of distribution.

Single-Currency Critique

Argument that not all moral goods can be reduced to quantifiable happiness units without moral loss.