Consequentialism-Utilitarianism

Consequentialism

• argues that morality is all about producing the right kinds of overall consequences.

• It judges whether or not something is right by what its consequences are. As a normative ethics, it has a lot of variants.

Utilitarianism.

Arguably the most popular and perhaps the most important is

Highest Possible Utility

The general stand of utilitarianism holds that an act is moral if and only if the action produces the

Divine Will or Eternal Law, Nature

The natural foundation of utilitarianism is not based on a human being's interpretation of any _________, but rather on what is generally experienced by man in the world, his experience with _______.

Jeremy Bentham

• He famously contended that nature has placed humans under the governance by two sovereign masters - pain and pleasure - and "it is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.

• He thus promulgated the "principle of utility" as the standard of right action.

pleasure and avoid pain.

Jeremy Bentham argued that "our actions, our ethics, must be founded on this natural inclination to pursue ________

Principle of Utility

is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness."

Utility

is construed here as the "property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered: if that party be the community in general, then the happiness of the community: if a particular individual, then the happiness of that individual."

ethical judgment, moral or ethical.

Thus, this normative ethics presents an __________ of an action based on the amount of pleasure and pain that an act produces.

Moreover, any act that produces pleasure or happiness and/or prevents pain or unhappiness is deemed as _________

Bentham’s Basic Calculus

• Qualitative view of utility

Intensity (how strong the pleasure or pain is)

duration (how long it lasts)

certainty (how likely the pleasure or pain is to be the result of the action)

proximity (how close the sensation will be to performance of the action)

fecundity (how likely it is to lead to further pleasures or pains)

purity (how much intermixture there is with the other sensation)

extent (the number of people affected by the action)

Intensity

(how strong the pleasure or pain is)

Duration

(how long it lasts)

Certainty

(how likely the pleasure or pain is to be the result of the action)

proximity

(how close the sensation will be to performance of the action)

fecundity

(how likely it is to lead to further pleasures or pains)

purity

(how much intermixture there is with the other sensation)

extent

(the number of people affected by the action)

John Stuart Mill

In his classical text Utilitarianism (1861), he justified the utilitarian principle (actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote overall human happiness) as the foundation of morals.

“Theory of life"

John Stuart Mill defines utilitarianism as the creed that considers a particular ________ as the "foundation of morals".

Pleasure

Mill’s view on the 'theory of life' is that there is one thing, and one thing only, that is intrinsically desirable, namely _______.

qualitative hedonism.

In contrast to Bentham, he argued that some types of pleasure are more valuable than others in virtue of their inherent qualities. This view is often called as

"higher faculties"

Mill contended that the more valuable pleasures are those which employ _________ such as "the pleasures of intellect, of the feelings and imagination, and of the moral sentiments".

"manner of existence"

His basis for such view is the empirical claim he made that all or almost all people prefer a _________ that uses higher faculties to a manner of existence which does not.

Thus, for him, the best human life ____________ is one in which the higher faculties play an adequate part.

"Greatest Happiness Principle"

Mill’s Utilitarianism refers to the ________, which promotes the capability of achieving happiness (higher pleasures) for the most amount of people.