Consequentialism Flashcards
What are the problems of moral theories so far?
They all rely on the existence of a law-giving God
Consequentialism
The view that normative properties depend only on consequences
Consequentialism about right action
The view that an act is morally right depends only on the consequences of that act or something related to that act
What is the general view of consequentialism?
That we should bring about the best outcome of those available to us
Direct/Act consequentialism
Decides whether an act is morally right depending on the consequences of the act itself
Indirect consequentialism
Decides whether an act is morally right depending on only the consequences of something related to the act
Motive consequentialism
Whether an act is morally right depends only on the consequences of the motive of the act
Virtue consequentialism
Whether an act is morally right depends on whether it stems from, or shows, a state of character that maximises good consequences
Rule consequentialism
Whether an act is morally wrong if and only if it violates a rule, the acceptance of which would have better consequences than the acceptance of any incompatible rule
Principle
Provides the measure/standard by which acts/objects/laws ought to be judged
Utility
The property in an object whereby it tends to produce benefit/advantage/pleasure/happiness to either the community in general or to a particular individual
What does it mean for an act to conform to the principle of utility?
An action is conformable to the principle of utility, with respect to the community at large, when the tendency it has to augment the happiness of the community is greater than any it has to diminish it
If an act increases the happiness of the many…
This is why the action is right and why the action ought to be done
What does Bentham argue about happiness
That it is intrinsically good, is good in and of itself
Theory of right action
The right action is the action which, when we sum the happiness over all sentient beings, produces the greatest net balance of happiness over unhappiness
Greatest amount of happiness for…
The greatest number of people
When considering the pleasure/pain generated from an action, what else needs to be considered?
The six circumstances
What are the six circumstances?
- The intensity of the pleasure/pain
- Its duration
- Its certainty/uncertainty
- Its propinquity
- Its fecundity
- Its purity
What is meant by propinquity?
Closeness/remoteness of the happiness
What is meant by fecundity?
The chance of being followed of sensations of the same kind
What is meant by purity?
The chance it has of not being followed by sensations of the opposite kind
How to test the principle of utility?
- Sum all the pleasure/pain experienced by each affected party
- Take the balance, see if it produces net pleasure/pain
- Repeat for all options
- Elect the action which produces the greatest net of happiness over unhappiness
In utilitarianism how does Bentham distinguish law and morality?
Law is the command expressing the will of the sovereign. There is a difference of laws we have and laws we ought to have
What does the principle of utility not depend on?
The aims/desires/intentions of the individual performing the analysis
What is Bentham’s response to the objection that there is no direct proof of the principle of utility itself?
It is the only principle that is truly intelligible, the principle is already accepted and there is no proof necessary, the principle of utility is basic and cannot itself be proved
Utilitarianism as a ‘doctrine for swine’
It doesn’t differentiate between different pleasures, primal pleasures are equivalent to pleasure of the mind and intellect
Mill’s response to the ‘doctrine of swine’ objection
He distinguishes between ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pleasures, assigning greater weight to higher pleasures
Epistemic argument
If it is impossible to tell whether an act is morally right or wrong, how can consequentialism possibly be a correct moral theory
Cluelessness objection?
How do we have a clue about the overall consequences of our many actions
Can it really be right that we act wrongly whenever we fail to ‘promote happiness’?
Our actions may have indirect consequences that are bad, for example every time you spend money rather than give money to charity
Does the principle of utility always present us with the right answer?
Actions which produce the greatest happiness may not be right
Act consequentialism
We should always act so as to make the world as good as we can possibly make it
Desert
Sometimes we are required to do things that make the world worse, sometimes people seem to deserve bad things
Are act consequentialism and desert in conflict?
Yes
How can we make act consequentialism and desert compatible?
It is important to give people what they deserve, but people only ever deserve good things or people deserve bad things sometimes, but their possession of these bad things makes the world better
