bentham and kant

What is Bentham's Act Utilitarianism?

-A form of utilitarianism which assess each situation independently of others and of rules and chooses the action that leads to the maximum amount of happiness.
-It is teleological because one must consider the consequences of an action to determine its morality(the end goal)
-no pleasure is superior to another
-every person is 'worth' the same

Jeremy Bentham

1748-1832
english philosopher and social reformer
embalmed body in UCL
intellectual child prodigy studied at Oxford at 12
frustrated by the legal system as it failed to defend the poorest in society
'Panopticon' type of prison
Utilities inside began as a theory of law
Said the law must be governed by the 'principle of utility'
spent his life campaigning for social justice

Bentham quote on equality of pleasures

'The Rationale of Reward' 1830
'Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry'

What were Bentham's beliefs that led to Act Utilitarianism?

1.He believed that people were motivated by the desire to achieve happiness(pleasure, not pain).
2.The desire to pursue pleasure and avoid pain leads to the principle of utility e.g. eating someone's food will not cause them happiness and so it is wrong as it does not lead to maximum happiness.
3.So in any situation we should seek the maximum happiness or benefit for the maximum number of people involved

4. to put this principle into practice, bentham put forward the hedonic calculus

What are Bentham's views on religion?

-He rejects religion as he believes that religion prevents morality.
-This is why his theory doesn't rely on God but instead focuses on the human ability to reason

What is the Principle of utility?

-That everyone should act in a way that produces the greatest pleasure for the greatest number of people and that the acts should minimise pain for the greatest number of people.

Bentham quote supporting the utility principle

-"It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong".

What is the sole intrinsic good?

-Happiness/pleasure, everything else is instrumentally good

What does instrumentally good mean?

-A quality that might or might not have value depending on what it leads to

How does Bentham feel that moral decisions should be made?

-He believed that they should be considered in their own right
-That experience and generally accepted principles should have secondary importance
-That rules don't have to be obeyed and that they should only be followed if they help to increase human happiness.

What is hedonism?

-The claim that pleasure is the ultimate good and so hedonists are motivated solely by the pursuit of pleasure.

What is the hedonic calculus and why is it needed?

-Bentham's approach to happiness is in terms of quantity and so pleasure and pain are measurable.
-The Calculus is a way of estimating the overall rightness/wrongness based on how much pleasure it brings about
-Measured through seven criteria
-also applied to infants and animals and to assume that pain and pleasure isn't measurable for them is ignorance
-the calculus is looking to establish whether an act has a balance of pleasure over pain and if it does the act is good

What are the 7 criteria of the Hedonic Calculus?

-Intensity-stronger happiness is better than weaker
-Duration-longer lasting pleasure is better than brief
-Certainty-an act that will definitely produce pleasure is better than one which may only possibly produce pleasure
-Propinquity-the more immediate in space/time the anticipated pleasure, the better
-Fecundity-a pleasure that produces more pleasure is of greater value than one that doesn't
-Purity-a pleasure that isn't mixed with pain is better than pleasure with pain
-Extent-the more people sharing the pleasure, the better.

Is anyone's happiness more important than another's according to Bentham?

-No
-Bentham(C18th-19th)was very aware of the social problems that existed because of the imbalance between the rich and the poor. He therefore wanted to resolve this balance.
-Everyone has an equal right to happiness regardless of their class
-When considering an action, the happiness of all people should be taken into account equally.
-He also wanted wanted people to be concerned with others' happiness as well as their own

What are some challenges to Bentham's Act Utilitarianism?

1. Consequentialist: requires people to guess the future, which could be easy to get wrong e.g saving the life of a child who grows up to be a mass murderer
2. It ignores motives, rules and duties: people must have stability of rules and it is their duty to obey them
3. It ignored the rights of minorities: no guarantee that the majority is morally right e.g sadistic guards abusing on prisoner the hedonic calculus seeks to justify this because the pleasure ratio of 7:1
4. Fails to bridge the 'is-ought' gap: G.E Moore says it commits the naturalistic fallacy of going from an 'is' to an 'ought'

Nozick and Williams criticisms

-Nozik- gave the example of someone who is able to experience all the pleasure in the world for 10y and said that once they come out, they will most likely not want to return as pleasure is not the only thing that matters to humans
-Bernard Williams- Utilitarianism doesn't focus on individual differences/ human nature e.g. people's beliefs(can be religious, cultural etc) sometimes what is best for the majority goes against someone's beliefs- would they be expected to disregard their beliefs?

What are the responses to these challenges?

1.consequentialism is not entirely true, while act utilitarianism does asses specific situations, most situations are 'general classes of acts' We know from experience that acts such as murder, theft and rape will lead to unhappiness

2.Rules and duties are useful only if they serve the 'primary principle of utility'. If the rule doesn't generate more pleasure than pain then the rule is immoral

3.If the rights of the minority are considered above the majority then it it unjust to the majority. The accusation of the guards abusing the prisoner goes against fecundity, purity and extent which requires pain and pleasure to be measured for all involved

4.universally people want happiness which is reason to support the claim that one ought to bring about the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

What did J.S. Mill disagree with Bentham on?

-Mill realised that Bentham's system of morality could lead to the exploitation of minorities in order to benefit the majority
-He believed that Bentham's view of pleasure was too simple, he called it childish
-To overcome this, he created a hybrid theory- Rule utilitarianism

What did Mill agree with Bentham on?

-The Utility Principle

What is Mill's Rule Utilitarianism?

-The belief that everyone should follow certain rules as they will bring about the greatest good for one's community
-The best possible result for the whole community should be voted on and then the option(s) that produce the most happiness become a rule for society to live by.
-It is deontological and teleological

What were Mill's views on higher and lower pleasures?

-He believed that some pleasures are more desirable and valuable than others-he thought that Bentham was too quantitative and not qualitative
-Higher pleasures are qualitatively better and therefore more important than lower pleasures
-Examples of higher pleasures are justice and knowledge and other pleasures of the mind
-Examples of lower pleasures-bodily pleasures e.g. food, drink and sex

What is a quote by Mill that shows his view on higher and lower pleasures?

"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied"

How does Mill link to universalisability?

-He believed that in order to follow the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number we need the principle of universalisability
-What is right or wrong for one person in a situation is right or wrong for all. Since each person desires his own happiness, each person should aim at their own happiness and therefore, everyone ought to aim at the happiness of everyone

Mill quote universalisability

"Each person's happiness is a good to that person, and the general happiness, therefore, is a good to the aggregate of all persons"

What example did Mill give to support rules?

A person who tells a lie in order to get some immediate advantage-he argued that soc needs the principle of truthfulness as if we didn't have it, nobody would be able to trust each other.

Can rules be broken to Mill?

-One could not tell the truth if the person who wants it will use it for an evil purpose and if it is to withhold bad news from someone who is dangerously ill as it could hurt them

Immanuel Kant

1724-1804
Prussian philosopher
Taught ethics, science and astronomy
leading figure in the european enlightenment
'Groundwork on the metaphysics of morals' 1785
he concluded that morality cannot be based on the evidence of the senses but he remained convinced that people had an inherent sense of right and wrong
We cannot know things as they are in the,selber (noumena) but only things as we perceive them to be (phenomena)

The good will

1.Kant insists there is only one thing that can be regarded as good without qualification: a good will
-the good will is autonomous and is good without reservation
-we cannot trust empirical evidence with all certainty
-from reading Hume, Kant says we could never logically argue from an 'is' to an 'ought'
-Kant behind his outline of ethics with the 'goodwill' knowing what it is to act morally

moral obligation

2. Alongside the good will we are all aware of having a sense of moral obligation
   -Kant's moral theory is based on the principles of pure practical reason and pure reason is aware of the compulsion of the moral 'ought'

Kant's ethics as deontological

-Duty is a matter of conscious choice: an internal sense of what one ought to do
-Kant believed that all humans have a duty to follow moral-this means that they should take actions if there is a completely rational principle behind them.
-The moral duties means that there are rules that need to be followed in all circumstances
-to be moral an action must be based on the pure practical reason: after you have reasoned out what you ought to do you should seek to do your duty
-Kant argued the 'good will' is not a natural gift it is a chosen act, so the aim is not be happy but to be worthy of being happy

Kant quote on duty

"Duty is the necessity to act of reverence for the law"

Kant's ethics is not entirely deontological

-the existence of the categorical ought does not mean we should do 'duty for duty's sake whatever the consequences'
-Kant does not ignore the consequences of our actions
-The consequences have to be worked through before you can tell whether the principle you want to act on conforms to the categorical imperative
-autonomous, people have to work out their own rules using the categorical imperative

What is summum bonum?

-The supreme good according to Kant
-It is the only thing that is intrinsically good
-Where virtue meets its appropriate reward of perfect happiness
-Kant argued that one should not strive to be happy but to be worthy of happiness
-Virtue has to be the starting point because it is a virtuous person who possesses the good will

How can summum bonum be achieved?

-By being perfectly rational
-Kant believed that humans were fundamentally rational and so summum bonum can be achieved by them-this rational thought distinguishes us from animals

What is the categorical imperative?

-An absolute, unconditional moral obligation that is binding in all circumstances and is not dependent on a person's inclination or purpose.
-It is an end in itself
-Do not murder, do not lie
-Commands that cannot be disobeyed because their good is intrinsic and deontological
-so categorical imperatives can lead us to universal maxims that everybody ought to follow

what is a maxim

A general guideline or principle of action.
It can be expressed as 'whenever X happens, I consider it right to do Y' it is your maxim that kant says should be universalised not the actual thing you are planning to do

What are the 3 forms of the Categorical imperative?

-Universalisability
-The practical imperative
-The Kingdom of Ends

What is universalisabilty?

Act only according to that maxi, whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law
-If what i propose to do is considered to be right I should be prepared for everyone else to work on the same principle.
-Making false promises/lying:
Being forced to borrow money without being able to pay it back but promising you could do
If this became a universal maxim the whole institution of 'promise-keeping' would fall apart, and would affect society and life.
Therefore you have a 'perfect duty' not to act this way
-Refusing to help others:
The maxim 'it is permissible for me never to help those who are less well-off than myself' you can never be sure that you will never need help and sympathy from others. If that situation arises than your maxim would deprive yourself of that help and sympathy
Therefore you have an 'imperfect duty' because there might be an exception such as not having enough money to help

Universalisability quote

"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can will that it should become a universal law".

The practical imperative

Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means but always at the same time as an end
-Kant believed that it is always wrong to use/harm humans e.g. using people as a way to advance yourself
-This is because he thought that humans have their own goals and desires that they want to achieve and so it is unfair to disregard that to reach your own goals/desires.
-to treat people only as a 'means' is to dehumanise people
-following from the first formulation if you don't want to be treated in that way you must respect others as autonomous moral individuals

The Kingdom of Ends

Act as though a legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends
-logically follows on from the first two formulations.
-you should always act as though you were responsible for making rules in a kingdom where everyone is to be treated as an end and not as a means
-a society of free and autonomous human individuals

What is a hypothetical imperative and the difference between a hypothetical imperative and a categorical imperative?

-A hypothetical imperative is when one action needs to be done for another end/purpose to be brought about
-Takes the form Do A in order to achieve B
'If you want to be trusted , then do not lie'
-The good of hypothetical imperatives is instrumental and motivated by self interest so they can never lead to commands that everybody ought to obey
-Whereas a categorical imperative unconditionally demands an action for its own sake
-Takes the form do A
-thus can lead to universal maxims that everybody ought to follow

radical evil

the categorical imperative is challenged by the existence of 'radical evil'
despite the rationality of the CI, human existence contains a great deal of moral evil.
Kant says radical evil happens when we follow our own self-interest
Kant suggested that humanity has a universal tendency towards radical evil

What are the 3 postulates according to Kant?

In order to make sense of the conviction that summum bonus is at least possible you must make three important assumptions called the 'postulated of practical reason'
God, immortality:
-God does not command moral laws they come from reason
-nevertheless you feel the compulsion of 'moral ought'
-ought implied can'
-if i do my duty and become morally worthy then there must be a reward of happiness
-the reward of highest obedience is summum bonum
-perfect happiness cannot be achieved in this life
-must be immortality in which summum bonum can be achieved
-only god can provide this
freedom:
-the core of morality
-we only know a priori that we are free
-if we are not free morality makes no sense
-freedom is therefore an a priori assumption

Noumenal and Phenomenal

reality has two aspects: the noumenal (the way reality really is) and phenomenal (what reality appears to be like)
-knowledge of phenomena is a posteriori amd knowledge of noumena is a priori
-Kant argued that the CI is a synthetic a priori proposition
-moral judgements are necessary and synthetic
-morality exists in the noumenal realm (outside of space and time) and not the world of sense experience and is known non-naturally

What are the strengths of Kant's Categorical Imperative?

-The CI and the principle of universalisability are clear and effective
-Doing a bad act to bring about good consequences can never be justified-it is with Act Utilitarianism
-Putting reason over emotions means that there can be objective fairness
-The 2nd principle promotes equality and justice
-It addresses the problem of conflicting moral duties:
Where truth telling and saving life conflict an evasive truth can be told
The prima facie duties show how Kant's thinking may be modified in exceptional cases
In the case of lying-a white lie could possibly be universalised
-The summum bonum argument makes sense to those who are religious

What are the challenges of Kant's Categorical Imperative?

-The basis of the theory is beyond what we can experience and this makes it just an assumption-his idea of universal moral rules isn't true to the world we live in
-If the consequences are good e.g. saving the lives of thousands then the act e.g. killing one can be argued by some to be justifiable
-Emotions are an integral part of what it means to be human-it is unrealistic to not be influenced by emotions
-His theory is wholly anthropocentric(only concerned with people) and his ethics devalue animals and the environment
-The argument makes no sense to non-religious people-this weakens the theory.

What are Kant's views on the noumenal realm?

-Noumenal realm-the spiritual realm where beings are perfectly rational beings-this realm includes God and Angels. He believed that humans can discover this world through reason.
-This realm is made of ideas

What are Kant's views on the phenomenal realm?

-This realm is the materialistic realm of pleasure and pain
-In this realm human experience can be felt, seen, smelt,heard and touched
-Animals inhabit this realm and humans also can when they are being too emotional and irrational

How do the two realms interact?

-Kant believed that the two realms are in a "battle" with each other
-Whilst humans can inhabit both, he believed that we should aim for the noumenal world-we can do this by not being side tracked by feeling or intuition and by simply obeying the moral law as that is always the right thing to do and it is our duty

What are some similarities between Kantian decision making and religious decision making?

-To Kant, the most compelling historical modal of moral behaviour is Jesus as he is said to have resisted all temptations, this is similar to SE which also sees Jesus as a role model
-Kant thinks the best way to promote ethical laws is through the church invisible-this church is universal-this shows that he is pro religious structures and authorities
-He says that it is not necessary to believe that Jesus was the Son of God but it is important to believe in the possibility that Jesus attained moral perfection-sees Jesus as a moral teacher
-Kant argues that God and Angels exist as perfectly rational beings.
-He has a deontological theory-somewhat similar to NML and DCT(Divine Command Theory)
-Universability is very similar to Jesus' Golden Rule-"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" -luke 6

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-Aquinas also believed that humanity's goal is union with God after death, similar to Kant's view with of summum bonum and NML is also based on the use of reason.

What are some differences between Kantian decision making and religious decision making?

-Jesus not being the Son of God doesn't fit the view of God of Classical Theism- God is also simply explained through rational principles and not as the ineffable mystery that Christians think of Him as
-His theory is all about duty and not love, unlike Jesus who was very focused on love of God and others
-It is a rule based theory where rules apply without exception, Jesus occasionally set aside the rules to allow for people's needs
-It is a secular theory in line with 18th century enlightenment -our sense of moral obligation from our nature as rational beings and has nothing to do with God.

What are some similarities between Bentham's views and and religious decision making?

-Bentham's attempts at social reform were strongly motivated by compassion and concern for others-equality was so important to him, similarly, Jesus came to help those in need and he believed that everyone should be treated the same
-Because Bentham is concerned with what will result in the greatest good for the greatest number, rules will sometimes need to be set aside, similarly to Jesus who acted situationally e.g. when he healed on the Sabbath-Luke 13:10-17

What are some differences between Bentham's views and religious decision making?

-Happiness was simply earthly happiness, in Christianity, happiness is not just to be looked for in this life, but it is about eternal joy in God's presence.
-Bentham rejected any idea of special rights, however the Bible teaches the importance of paying special attention to the vulnerable e.g. widows and the poor
-To Bentham, consequences are all that matter, not rules,motives of the act itself, Jesus however taught that motives do matter e.g. giving to the poor just to impress others is wrong. Christianity also believes that rules are important e.g. the 10 Commandments
-To Bentham, happiness is the sole intrinsic good, Jesus taught that the most important rules are love of God and of neighbour. Happiness is about human flourishing and it is a by-product of a loving action instead of a goal
-Rules are of secondary importance to Bentham and if they get in the way of the Utility Principle, they should be discarded, many Christian ethical theories follow a rule-based morality.

What are the similarities between Kantian Ethics and Utilitarianism?

-Both ethics can function in a secular society-Kant because humans have total moral responsibility and Bentham because her focuses on hedonism over religion
-Both ethics support the aims of democracy-Bentham because he searches for the greatest good for the greatest number and Kant because of universalisability and the Kingdom of Ends
-Both have similar contexts-they are both working for the good of soc
-Both support maximising good for humans above all else

What are the differences between Kantian Ethics and Utilitarianism?

-Bentham-teleological vs Kant-deontological
-Kant believes in the existence of God and Angels, Bentham doesn't
-Bentham aims for pleasure, Kant aims for reason
-With Kant some actions are always wrong, with Bentham-there are no moral absolutes
-Kant doesn't use humans as means to ends, Bentham would find it acceptable if it leads to happiness for the greatest number
-Kant uses the principle of the categorical imperative, Bentham uses the Hedonic Calculus
-For Bentham a good will=happiness(pleasure) and for Kant a good will=following the law.- happiness v reason
-Bentham believes more in consequences, whereas Kant is more concerned with duties