Act utilitarianism strength and weaknesses

Strength - naturalistic theory 1

Benthams utilitarianism starts from the obvious fact that all human seek pleasure and avoid pain. This is something that we can all understand and use for making moral decisions. This makes it obvious this is because it is part of our nature to seek happiness and avoid pain. This is why it is a naturalistic theory. Kin ethics bases its theories on abstract concepts such as duty and good will which is too difficult to use for moral decision-making.

CA-complex to calculate 1

whilst it may seem simplistic it results in a complex calculation of the quantity of goodness. Trying to work out what is objectively right or wrong Using the hedonic calculus is incredibly difficult and at worst impossible. This means that Benthams utilitarianism is of little use when making moral decisions as the hedonic calculus is extremely subjective.

Strength-consequences are important 2

when we make ethical decisions one of the main things that we are concerned with is how our actions are going to affect people. They should dictate whether we do an action. Deontological ethical theories are too focused upon ensuring that we  always follow the moral law, irrespective of the consequences. Therefore, any action increases pleasure as its consequence is a moral action irrespective of their intentions for acting. It is in fact the most considerate thing to do to consider how our actions affect people.

CA-not consider minorities 2

however, this is in fact not considerate of minorities. If we are always seeking the great happiness for the greatest number, then that means Benim utilitarianism congest sacrificing one person happiness for the happiness of others. This can lead to difficult and immoral consequences. For example, if we torture someone for the entertainment of many others this outweigh the pain of the individual therefore according to you utilitarianism this is okay, despite this, we are aware that torture is not a morally acceptable action. Canon effect solstice problem because it is immoral to use someone for other peoples pleasure meaning it is moral to torture someone even if the consequence may appear ‘good.’

Strength-moral laws don’t really exist 3

moral laws don’t really exist and are very abstract. This is a problem with deontological ethical theories. Whether these laws stem from God (natural law) or reason (kant), they ask us to believe that these laws are what we should base our actions upon. However in utilitarianism we can experience directly what is good and then work towards bringing about that goodness through the consequences of our actions, rather than rely upon the existence of abstract moral laws.

CA-difficult to know consequences kant 3

Kant recognises the problems with teleological systems as it is difficult to know what the consequences of your actions are going to be, how many people are they going to affect, will the design outcome actually take place because of my actions? Therefore it is hard to predict how much pleasure or pain we gain from our actions.

Strength-more flexible 4

consequences offer a more flexible way of doing ethics. Because utilitarianism (particularly act utilitarianism) allows us to respond directly to the situation in which we find ourselves, then it allows us to be more flexible in our moral decision making Whilst still allowing genuine moral decisions to bemade. This is because it depends on the situation so nothing is always right or wrong so it considers unique and difficult situations eg it is okay to steal if you are feeding your starving family.

CA-mill argument 4

mill would argue that there are different qualities of pleasure and these need to be taken into account when making decisions about our actions. Just because you get the most pleasure doesn’t consider the bigger picture and how worthy the pleasure is. Not all pleasures are the same. So just because it may be more flexible, it still focuses too much on quantity over quality.

Strength - we know what’s good and bad 5

allows us to know what is good and bad. One of the problems of Canon EX is it is purely rational and abstract therefore it makes it hard for us to recognise what is good and what is bad. However in utilitarianism we can actually experience the good and the badger and paint and we can apply to our decisions.

CA- Kant reason

Kant would say that the good is what is determined by reason for example the moral law should never be something that is dependent upon our bodily emotions or inclinations.

Strength-overall happiness in life 6

by seeking maximum pleasure for the most amount of people in each individual action that you do, it will maximise peoples overall happiness in life. This is because it brings out the highest possible level of utility that we could bring out as the majority people are constantly receiving pleasure. This detest moral laws because it argues that these rules may prevent us from maximising happiness in every situation meaning, we haven’t reached the highest possible level of utility and pleasure in our lives.

CA-need social goods in life 6

we need social ‘goods’ for example justice, equality, fairness and act utilitarianism is unable to provide these. This is because people are objectified due to the fact that people aren’t treated as human they just treated as a gain of pleasure gain of pain. Meaning people also do not have rights which again allows us to do immoral actions.

CA- nozicks experience machine

Nozick’s experience machine is a thought experiment which supposes that people have a choice to plug themselves into a machine which would then generate fake experiences that were entirely pleasurable. The person would forget about their real life and not know that they were in the machine once they were in it. Nozick thinks that not everyone would choose to enter the machine. He thinks this shows that people value things other than pleasure. shows most people don’t just want happiness. People want authenticity and a connection to reality