Bentham and Kant Flashcards
1
Q
Who is Kant?
A
- Spent his whole life in the same place doing the same thing every day.
- Had no wife
- One of only non-aristocratic ethicist.
2
Q
What is Kant’s theory?
A
- Deontological, in his theory the action is what establishes the moral duty.
3
Q
What does Kant say about moral statements?
A
- Normal statements are either a priori analytic, they are knowable without experience and are verifiable through reason, or they are a posteriori synthetic, knowable through experience and verifiable through experience.
4
Q
What did Kant say about good will and duty?
A
- Kant believed that nothing could be good except good will.
- Something is good only when someone carries out their duty to do it, so goodness is based on doing the correct thing.
5
Q
What did Kant say about the categorical imperative?
A
- Kant specified that moral actions are absolute actions that must be done in all circumstances, there are to be no conditions attached.
- Moral actions cannot be hypothetical because they become too subjective.
- If an action is to be entirely objective, it must be universal and if it is to be made properly, the human must be in total control (autonomous) and assume all others are autonomous.
6
Q
What are the three formulations?
A
- Always perform actions that may be made universal laws for everyone.
- Always treat people as ends in themselves, not as means to an end.
- Pretend you live as a member of and as a leader of the Kingdom of Ends where all people live as if these rules are totally valid.
7
Q
What does Kant say about the summum bonum?
A
- Kant noted that if we are to do our duty then we must be able to be rewarded for our actions.
- He talked about the summum bonum, the place where our happiness and our virtue come together.
- This is obviously not something that can be found on earth, we see bad people living happy lives and good people living unhappy lives, therefore the summum bonum must be able to be achieved in the afterlife.
8
Q
What does Kant say about the three postulates of pure practical reason?
A
- Kant postulated three things that were necessary for his theory to work, but which rationally must exist.
- We must be free to be able to make decisions, there must be an afterlife for use to be able to achieve the summum bonum God must exist in order to be a fair judge to bring us to the afterlife or not.
9
Q
What are the strengths of Kantian Ethics?
A
- It is universal so everyone is treated equally and given equal value.
- Promotes good will, which is beneficial for society.
- There are no references to the future or to consequences, which cannot be known.
10
Q
What are the weaknesses of Kantian Ethics?
A
- It does not seem to account for the complexities of life, universality cannot work as no two situations are the same.
- For example, would you tell a known murderer where his victim was? Kant says we have to.
- It does not account for any particular duty we may have for certain people e.g., family.
11
Q
What is Utilitarianism?
A
- In its simplest form Utilitarianism is a theory that says that you should decide what you do in order to provide the most happiness and the least pain in a situation.
- It is therefore hedonistic; it is centred around pleasure.
- It is teleological as you look at how pleasure and pain will be best balanced.
- It is relativist as the outcome of a different ethical question will be different each time.
12
Q
What is Bentham’s Utilitarianism?
A
- Bentham sated that natural we are ruled by two key things, pleasure and pain.
- ‘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.’
- Bentham said that we need to look at the possible things we might do and the various outcomes and calculate how much pleasure and pain they might create, finally choosing the one that best maximises pleasure and minimises pain. His approach is therefore quantitative.
- He said we need to consider seven different factors in his Hedonic Calculus,
o Intensity
o Duration
o Certainty
o Propinquity
o Fecundity
o Purity
o Extent
13
Q
What are the advantages of Bentham’s Utilitarianism?
A
- It is reasonable to link morality with the pursuit of happiness and the avoidance of pain and misery.
- It is also natural to consider the consequences of our actions when deciding on what to do.
14
Q
What are the disadvantages of Bentham’s Utilitarianism?
A
- You cannot predict the future so the calculations cannot always be accurate.
- Pain can be good, and pleasure can be bad, therefore utilitarianism can be contradicted.
- There are certain things that are intrinsically good or bad, so there is no reason to do calculations each time.
15
Q
How is Bentham’s Utilitarianism inconsistent with religious decision making?
A
- Bentham’s Utilitarianism was formulated independently of belief in God.
- For Utilitarianism, self-interest is inevitable. Christianity lacks his focus.
- Unlike Utilitarianism, religion has a spiritual dimension.
- Christian moral decision making has a particular focus on the weaker members of society.
- Christianity in general gives greater value to rules in decision making.
- In Christianity, to be truly moral, a decision must be made in the right mental state.
