Bentham and kant introduction Flashcards
hedonism
pleasure primary/ most important intrinsic good
principle of utility
-greatest happiness principle
-actions or behaviours are right if they promote happened or pleasure and wrong if they produce unhappiness or pain
what did Bentham believe?
-it was observable in life that all people are hedonists. believed hedonism to be empirical observation of real-world evidence
-1.observation of human behaviour. UT recognises people naturally desire happiness and try minimise suffering
2.consequence based ethics - UT emphasises the outcomes of actions.
what did Jeremy Bentham insist?
-things like too much respect for antiquity, hatred of innovation, antipathy, sympathy, fancy, religion have nothing to do with making laws.
-e.g some religions say homosexuality punishable by death - Bentham said such attitudes based on superstition and ignorance and argued that all laws that criminalise homosexual acts should be thrown out.
Bentham quotes
“nature has placed mankind under the governance of 2 sovereign masters, pain and pleasure”
Bentham beliefs
-UT teleological and relative
-doesnt believe in moral absolutes
-what max pleasure and min pain changes in diff situations and so what people do can change
-two intrinsics, good and pleasure
principle of utility
-practical man
-things should be judged to be right or wrong according to whether or not they benefited the people involved
Bentham scientific approach
-scientific approach to morality
-once benefit could be quantified, it could be apportioned on that basis with evidence that could be presented to justify the moral choice
-once decision taken right thing was to confer max happiness
-principle of utility offered a clear way in which that decision could be applied
qualitative utilitarianism
-quantitative assessment of happiness and suffering when making moral decisions
-measuring and calculating amount of quantity of pleasure and pain that each action produces and aims to choose that action that max total net happiness
hedonic calculus
-based on pleasure
-way to calculate and measure pleasure nd pain
strengths of UT
-based on single straightforward principle
-how majority of society works as its related to idea of democracy
-humans naturally designed to weigh up consequences of their actions- all have ability to reason
weaknesses of UT
-impossible to predict consequences
-someone can have immoral intention which still produces greatest happiness for greatest number
-focuses on best outcome for majority could lead to slave culture
-not seen as morally preferable to seek pleasure - surely there are higher goods
