Philosophy Midterm Review - Utilitarian Ethics

Consequentialism

Consequentialist theories simply universalize consequences. Consequences are the only ethically significant consideration, therefore, whether an act is ethically right or not depends solely upon the consequences of the action. Each person should act as to ensure the best possible consequences for everyone

What is the most famous consequentialist theory?

Utilitarianism

What did Jeremy Bentham believe?

“Nature has placed man under the governance of two masters, pain and pleasure” The only thing intrinsically good is pleasure and the only thing intrinsically bad is pain

What is the Principle of Utility?

The greatest good for the greatest number

Utility

What we might consider good or desirable. Good = Pleasure Happiness (Hedonism)

Disutility

What we might consider not good or undesirable. Bad = Pain or unhappiness

Calculus of Felicity

intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity (how soon), fecundity (what other sensations of pleasure/pin will follow, purity, extent

Act/Classical Utilitarianism

The morally right acts for any particular situation, is the act that produces the greatest amount of overall utility.

What’s included in Bentham’s felicity calculus (simplified)

Scope, duration, intensity, probability

What is the right action?

Whichever action will yield the most pleasure for the most people impacted.

Bentham’s focus on physical pleasure is why his theory is sometimes called…

Hedonistic ultitarianism

How does MIll’s utilitarianism differ from Bentham’s utilitarianism

Mill believes in quality of pleasures over Bentham’s quantity of pleasures

John Stuart Mill on Pleasure Vs. Happiness

Not all pleasures may be good and some pleasures are short lived. There are higher and lower pleasures; the preferences of educated people determine higher pleasures — higher pleasures should count more than lower pleasures. both we need both.

What does a “pig philosophy” refer to

Benthams Utilitarianism

Competent Judges

Mill’s observation regarding wualitative distinctions poses an issue for Bentham’s calculus of felicity. If pleasures can’t be equated, then we need some other way of discerning how to weigh competing pleasures. Mill believes that is competent judges, those familiar with the pleasures in question.

What is Rule-Utilitarianism?

“Each act, in the moral life, falls under a rule; and we are to judge the rightness or wrongness of an act, not by its consequences, but by the consequences of its universalization — that is, by the consequences of the rule under which this act falls.

Nozick’s “Experience Machine”

The thought experiment is an argument against hedonism i.e the position that good is to be defined in terms of pleasure alone. Argues that “what matters” includes more than simply having an experience, we wish to do things and be a certain way, and hedonism doesn’t fully answer the question of motivation/what matters. Hedonims is insufficient

Criticisms

Too cumbersome, Moral Saints: makes everything a moral consideration, this is the extreme of singer’s positions (discussed earlier)