Ethics Utilitarianism

Question 1

Teological

JB

Answer 1

Theory that considers the outcome of an action to decide if it’s right or wrong.

P: World is overpoppulated making people starve
P: I kill half the world
C: People no longer starve

Question 3

Deontological

JB

Answer 3

P: World is overpoppulated making people starve
P: I don’t half the world
C: People still starve but no one dies

Question 4

Hedonic Calculus

JB

Answer 4

The 7 categories

Question 5

Purity

JB

Answer 5

This just means I should think about whether my act will also cause suffering.

Question 6

Richness

JB

Answer 6

Our acts should lead to more happiness later

Question 7

Extent

JB

Answer 7

How many people will be affected by my actions? How far will the happiness spread?

Question 8

Duration

JB

Answer 8

How long will your happiness last?

Question 9

Intensity

JB

Answer 9

This is how happy you get.

Eg; on a hot day a glass of water will make me happy but a pint will make me more intensely happy

Question 10

Certainty

JB

Answer 10

How sure am I about what will happen?

If it only could bring happiness then it makes it much less certain that I should do that act.

Question 11

Timescale.

JB

Answer 11

This just means that you should think about how long the happiness will take to happen.

Question 12

Mills Theory

JM

Answer 12

Mill’s theory was qualitative, Mill’s is concerned with what type of happiness

Question 13

Mills theory is basically

Answer 13

Everyone’s happiness first, not necessarily your own.

Try to get the most happiness in every situation (but also bear in mind that some forms of happiness are better than others and some forms of happiness like art, philosophy or literature will take longer to appreciate).

Qualitative

Teleological

Fits with Christianity in the sense that you could say it agrees with the golden rule.

Could be Act or Rule Utilitarian.

Question 14

Act Utilitarianism

Subsections

Answer 14

This is where you try to work out the action that will create the most happiness in every situation.

Question 15

rule utilitarianism

Subsections

Answer 15

There should be rules that will lead to the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

Because if we allow stealing then people will be unhappy if their shit is stolen

Question 16

Teological crit

TC

Answer 16

Consequentialists fail to draw a line between the actions that cause an outcome.

Eg; me not paying 100 dollars to a charity caused the death of a child is the same as me letting my friend get hit by a car, both outcomes were caused by my inability to act, yet one appears to be worse then the other

Question 17

Integrity

TC

Answer 17

P: A dictator tells me to kill 1 person
P: If I kill 1 person the dictator spares 18 people
P: I dont want to kill anyone or maybe I do
C: I commit the act out of my own integrity
C: Utilitarnism tells me not to act in integrity because integrity is only important to the extent that it impacts on our happiness.
C: So I really just act however I want and kill the dictator

Question 18

Subjective and objective

TC

Answer 18

P: Utilitarians ask us to look at events objectively
P: We should priortise the Greater good
C: Ignore our own subjective perspective

But why? posits Nagel, this is a view from ‘nowhere’ the objective view isn’t an actual perspective that anyone has.