Bentham and Kant

Question 1

what did Bentham present?

Answer 1

• basic form of Utilitarianism

Question 2

what did Kant argue for?

Answer 2

• categorical imperative

Question 3

what is the principle of utility?

Answer 3

• the greatest happiness for the greatest number is the measure of right and wrong
• laws are only a secondary principle

Question 4

what did Bentham argue about laws that criminalised homosexuality?

Answer 4

• should be thrown out

- argues homosexual acts don’t weaken men

Question 5

what did Bentham spend his life doing?

Answer 5

• campaigning for the kind of social justice that would offer the greatest possible benefit for the greatest number of people in society

Question 6

what did Kant follow from what Hume belived?

Answer 6

• there are things we know for certain, that go beyond empirical evidence

Question 7

what is Kants Copernican Revolution?

Answer 7

• we see the world as we do, not because our minds conform to what is ‘out there’ but because our minds organise our experience

Question 8

what did Kant conclude with ethics?

Answer 8

• that morality cannot be based on the evidence of the senses
• people has an inherent sense of right and wrong

Question 9

what is a key feature of Kants thinking?

Answer 9

• we cannot know things as they are in themselves, but only as we perceive them to be

Question 10

what is act utilitarian?

Answer 10

• decisions about right and wrong are made in each unique situation
• rather than applying general moral principles

Question 11

what does Benthams Act Utilitarianism follow?

Answer 11

• seek pleasure, avoid pain
• leads to principle of utility
• seek maximum happiness for maximum number

Question 12

what can please be measured? (Bentham)

Answer 12

• the Hedonic Calculus

Question 13

what does the Hedonic Calculus consider?

Answer 13

• intensity
• duration
• certainty
• propinquity
• purity
• extent

Question 14

what else did Bentham apply the Hedonic Calculus to?

Answer 14

• human infants and to animals
• argued many animals are more intelligent that the least intelligent humans
• should therefore, be treated as members of moral community

Question 15

what does the Hedonic Calculus conclude?

Answer 15

• broadly speaking, looking to establish whether an act has a balance of pleasure over pain, if it does then the act is good/right

Question 16

evaluating Benthams Act Utilitarianism?

Answer 16

• puts too much emphasis on the consequences of our actions
• ignores motives
• ignores the rights of minorities
• cannot bridge the ‘is-ought gap’