Consequentialism

• Consequentialism

  • End result of the action

• Deontology

  • Rule that the action follows or violates

• Virtue Ethics

  • Character of the person performing the action

The Good in Consequentialism

“Consequentialism is a theory according to which rightness or wrongness of an act is determined solely by the intrinsic goodness or badness of its various consequences.”

• Intrinsic Good

  • Good in itself or desirable for its own sake

  • Inherent in the thing itself

• Instrumental Good

  • Desired for the sake of smth else

  • Value is derived from its ability to contribute to achieve intrinsic good

Varieties of Consequentialism

1. Is pleasure (or happiness) the only intrinsic good? (is pain the only intrinsic bad or evil?)

   1. Hedonistic and Non-hedonistic Consequentialism

2.  Is the agent’s own intrinsic good the only one that morally matters? (is the agent’s intrinsic good the only one that is morally relevant in judging the morality of his/her actions?)

   1. Agent-relative and Agent-Neutral Consequentialism

Hedonism

• Only intrinsic good is pleasure

• “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters: pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.” -J. Bentham

• “By ‘happiness,’ is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by ‘unhappiness,’ pain, and the privation of pleasure.” -J.S. Mill
  
  

• Criticisms

  • G.E. Moore’s Open Question Argument

    • The mere fact that it is meaningful to ask whether pleasure is good means that pleasure cannot be equated with the good

  • What is actually desired is not necessarily desirable (understood as what should be desired)

Non-hedonism

1. Exclusive Non-hedonism

• Rejects the view of hedonism that pleasure is an intrinsic good

2. Inclusive Non-hedonism

• Rejects the view of hedonism that pleasure is the only intrinsic good

Agent Relative Consequentialism

• Only consequences that morally matter (or morally relevant in judging the morality of an action) are the agent-related ones

Agent-Neutral Consequentialism

• Both agent-related and non-agent-related consequences morally matter

1. Agent-Relative Hedonism

• Pleasure and pain are the only ones that have intrinsic value: pleasure being the only intrinsic good, and pain being the only    intrinsic evil

• Cyrenaic Hedonism

  • the most intense sensual pleasure of the moment becomes preferable to the other kind.

  • Life’s uncertainty that gives rise to the sense of urgency to exhaust pleasures that one can possibly enjoy while still alive

• Sensations are entirely individual and can in no way be described as constituting absolute objective knowledge.

• Sensory experience is rooted in the moment of sensation. Past and future pleasures have no real existence for us.

• Epicurean Hedonism

  • Pleasure is the only thing that people do, as a matter of fact, value for its own sake.

  • All activities done are directed toward obtaining pleasure for oneself

  • Desire for life filled with intense pleasures will be frustrated, because there are not enough of them in the ordinary course of events.

2. Agent-Relative Non-Hedonism

• Power is more fundamental than pleasure

  • Having control over things

• “What is good?—All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man. What is bad?—All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness?—The feeling that power increases—that a resistance is overcome.”

Agent-Neutral Consequentialism

Utilitarianism

• Consequentialism

• Welfarism

• Aggregationism

Utilitarianism

• calculation of which action maximizes aggregate welfare for all the persons involved, not a numbers game in terms of persons who will benefit from an action.

• Greater happiness >> greater no. of people

1. Consequentialism

• morality of an action is determined  based on the kind of consequences that the action has or results in.

2. Welfarism

• Utilitarianism is a welfarist theory because the consequences that it considers to be morally relevant are those that affect the welfare (or well-being) of persons.

• “We may define ‘welfare’ as the ‘obtaining to a high or at least reasonable degree of a quality of life which on the whole a person wants or prefers to have.” - Richard Hare

3. Aggregationism

• Naturally leads to impartiality

• Welfare considered to be morally relevant is the maximum aggregate or sum total of welfare of all affected persons.

• “The standard is not the agent’s own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of happiness altogether; not the agent’s own happiness, but that of all concerned.” - J.S. Mill

The action that produces the greatest net sum total of pleasures constitutes the morally good action.

Utilitarianism 

• Morally good act is the one that produces the maximum aggregate or the greatest sum total of welfare of all affected persons
  
  

1. Hedonistic &
   Non-Hedonistic Utilitarianism
   
   

   1. Hedonistic Utilitarianism

      1. Pleasure is the only intrinsic good and pain is the only intrinsic evil

• Quantitative Utilitarianism

  • Quantitatively calculate pleasures ought to be preferred, Bentham comes up with a set of criteria which has come to be called the calculus of felicity or hedonistic calculus.

  • Looked at as a swinish doctrine for taking in only pleasure and pain to have intrinsic value; puts human pleasures and pain on the same level as animal pleasures and pain

• Qualitative Utilitarianism

  • Pleasure is not a homogeneous matter. 

  • Some types of pleasure are more valuable than others in virtue of their inherent quality.

2. Non-Hedonistic Utilitarianism
   
   

• Exclusive Non-hedonistic Utilitarianism

  • Pleasure is not the intrinsic good but something else.

  • PREFERENCE UTILITARIANISM

    • What should be maximized is not the experience of pleasure but the satisfaction of preferences (desires or interests)

    • Preference Balancing

      • Weighing the relative strengths of the preferences involved in a given situation
        
        

• Inclusive Non-hedonistic Utilitarianism

  • Pleasure is not the only intrinsic good for there are others.

  • PLURALISTIC UTILITARIANISM

    • Plurality of intrinsic goods
       

    • Cases:

      • Right attitude towards a person in misery

      • Desirability of beauty

2. Act and Rule Utilitarianism
   
   

• Act Utilitarianism

  • Does performing the act maximize aggregate good?

• Rule Utilitarianism

  • Does the act follow a rule which when generally followed or conformed to produce the maximum aggregate good? (Does it follow an optimific rule?)