Authentic Self and Utilitarianism Flashcards

Flashcards on Authenticity, Utilitarianism, and related concepts.

Summerhill

A private school founded in 1921 by A. S. Neill in England that aims to follow the interests of the students, where classes are optional, and children are encouraged to express their feelings without judgment.

Amour de soi

A deep concern with our own welfare and preservation, according to Rousseau.

Amour-propre

Self-love or pride, where individuals are trying to outdo everyone else; seen as the source of damage humans inflict on one another, according to Rousseau.

Intrinsic Human Quality

The natural disgust at seeing other sensible beings suffer pain or death, according to Rousseau.

Ethical Naturalist

An ethical stance where morality is based on natural inclinations like self-preservation and compassion.

Self-Mastered Man (Nietzsche)

Rejects and rises above societal coercion and control.

Übermensch (Superman)

The superior one who is capable of being fulfilled by his or her sense of purpose, according to Nietzsche.

Quietism

Acceptance of the Church's teaching and abandonment of personal ambition

Existentialism

Existence precedes essence.

Mauvaise foi

Living in a state of bad faith, according to Sartre.

Sartre's Man

Condemned to be free.

I-It

When we encounter the world as objects; the person relates to them from self-interest, and monologically, according to Buber.

I-Thou

A relationship where we recognize the other not as an object, but as a being that resonates with us; the moment of connection where the separateness of our existence falls away, according to Buber.

Utilitarianism

The rightness or wrongness of actions is determined by the results they produce.

Bentham's formulation

Measure of right and wrong is discovered by assessing the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

Factors for examining total happiness

Intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extent.

Shift the focus

Act that maximizes happiness to the rule that will bring it about.

Act Utilitarians

When faced with a choice, act utilitarians consider the particular situation to determine what individual act would maximize happiness.

Rule Utilitarians

Generate rules or derive guidelines from the greatest happiness principle that look beyond the immediate case and bring in other considerations.

Summum bonum

The best good.

Bounded rationality

Achieving the best available outcome may be better than the best possible one.

Satisficing

Looking for the first needle sharp enough to do the job at hand

Preference Utilitarianism

The moral endeavor is to fulfill as many preferences as possible.

Singer's claim

If we can benefit others greatly at little costs to ourselves, then that is what we should do.

Simple sensation

If pleasure were simply the same as the good, then it ought to be straightforward to say that whatever increases pleasure is always good, and, conversely it is always good to increase pleasure.