Utilitarianism

What is the difference between purely teleological and purely deontological approaches to the morality (rightness/wrongness) of actions?

• teleological: actions are right insofar as they move us toward an appropriate goal and wrong if they impede our progress

• deontological: actions are right if they conform to duty and wrong if they are inconsistent with duty

Is utilitarianism an intrinsic or an extrinsic theory of the relationship between morality and reality?

extrinsic because utilitarianism says that what makes an action right or wrong is its consequences

Is utilitarianism a deontological or a teleological theory?

teleological

How were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill related to utilitarianism?

Bentham’s founded classical utilitarianism and argued that the right action is the one that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number, John Stuart Mill’s refined Bentham’s theory by emphasizing long term rather than immediate consequences and individual rights

For utilitarians, what is the one thing that people desire as an end in itself, rather than as the means to an end?

happiness

How do utilitarians define happiness?

pleasure in the absence of pain

How is utilitarianism different from hedonism?

hedonism says goal of life is physical pleasure, utilitarianism is about the moral action that produces the most total good

What is the Principle of Utility?

sandel says maximizing the greatest good for the greatest number

Do utilitarians give greater weight to their own happiness, as compared to the happiness of others? Why or why not?

no: my happiness is no more significant than anyone else’s, self sacrifice makes sense if it maximizes happiness for the bigger group

What is Joseph Fletcher’s Situation Ethics?

fletcher’s attempt to give a christian adaptation to utilitarianism: christian love should be the goal rather than pleasure in the absence of pain, ie. woman who got pregnant outside of marriage to get out of jail

How did Fletcher modify utilitarianism, for Christian ethics?

he created “situation ethics” which meant maximizing christian love, ie. mrs. bergemeier who slept with the prison guard

What are test cases used for, in ethical theory?

to show examples of ethical theories that could contradict the theory

What practical problem does the test case about the panda, the person, and the Mona Lisa raise for utilitarian ethics?

utilitarianism is hard to calculate when things don’t “cost” the same, everyone’s answer could be different on which to save

What is the Trolley Problem and why is it a test case for utilitarianism?

a thought experiment where you must choose whether to divert a runaway trolley to kill one person or five, it forces you to decide based on which action produces the greatest overall good, highlighting how utilitarianism judges actions by their consequences