ethics - utilitarianism

utilitarianism

John Stuart mill, morality of an action is determined by utility = happiness, greatest happiness principle

greatest happiness principle

right action is the one that produces the greatest overall happiness, greatest happiness for the greatest number

impartiality (agent neutrality)

everyone happiness not agents own happiness

secondary rule

principles that can be derived from 1st principles but are not themselves fundamental, rules people should follow to fulfill that 1st ethical principle of maximizing happiness or utility

act utilitarianism

interested only in actions impact when judging of action is good or not, consider only the results or consequences of the single act

rule utilitarianism

interested in goodness or badness of moral rule that follows, considering consequences that result of following a rule of conduct

singer argument

we in affluent countries are morally require to give more to famine relief 4 premises to support, duty not charity

premise 1

suffering and death from lack of shelter and food and medicine = bad

premise 2

singers principle - if it is in our power to prevent something sacrificing anything morally significant we ought to do it

premise 3

geographical distance does not lessen our moral obligation

premise 4

number of people who are in same situation does not lessen our obligation

thought experiments to know

drowning child and trolley problem

objection 1 to singers argument

too drastic, requires too drastic revision we don’t usually think that way

response - we need to drastically revise our current way of thinking

objection 2 to singers argument

too demanding, require us to make enormous sacrifices it overly demanding

response - morality is demanding indeed we are reluctant to face this demandingness