Lesson 13 – CONSEQUENTIALISM: UTILITARIANISM

Question 1

argues that morality is all about producing the right kinds of overall consequences

Answer 1

Consequentialism

Question 2

It judges whether or not something is right by what its consequences are. In other words, it asserts that ethical judgments are not based on the act itself but on the consequence or consequences of an act

Answer 2

Consequentialism

Question 3

holds that an act is moral if and only if the action produces the highest possible utility. This is to say that the morally right action is the action that produces the most good. Thus, one ought to maximize the overall good, that is, consider the good of others as well as one’s own good

Answer 3

Utlitarianism

Question 4

He famously contended that nature has placed humans under the governance by two sovereign masters – painand pleasure and “it is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.”

Answer 4

Jeremy Bentham

Question 5

e argued that “our actions, our ethics, must be founded on this natural inclination to pursue pleasure and avoid pain.”

Answer 5

Jeremy Bentham

Question 6

He thus promulgated the “principle of utility” as the standard of right action

Answer 6

Jeremy Bentham

Question 7

He wrote, “By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness.”

Answer 7

Jeremy Bentham

Question 8

When an agent faces this situation and is called up to make a moral decision,___ is the basis.

Answer 8

Bentham’s calculus

Question 9

Bentham’s calculus

Answer 9

intensity
duration
certainty
proximity
fecundity
purity
extent

Question 10

how strong the pleasure or pain is

Answer 10

intensity

Question 11

how long it lasts

Answer 11

duration

Question 12

how likely the pleasure or pain is to be the result of the action

Answer 12

certainty

Question 13

how close the sensation will be to performance of the action

Answer 13

proximity

Question 14

how likely it is to lead to further pleasures or pains

Answer 14

fecundity

Question 15

how much intermixture there is with the other sensation

Answer 15

purity

Question 16

the number of people affected by the action

Answer 16

extent

Question 17

In his classical text Utilitarianism (1861), he justified the utilitarian principle (actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote overall human happiness) as the foundation of morals

Answer 17

John Stuart Mill

Question 18

actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote overall human happiness

Answer 18

utilitarian principle

Question 19

He defines utilitarianism as the creed that considers a particular “theory of life” as the “foundation of morals”. His view on the ‘theory of life’ is that there is one thing, and one thing only, that is intrinsically desirable, namely pleasure.

Answer 19

John Stuart Mill

Question 20

he argued that some types of pleasure are more valuable than others in virtue of their inherent qualities

Answer 20

John Stuart Mill

Question 21

some types of pleasure are more valuable than others in virtue of their inherent qualities

Answer 21

qualitative hedonism

Question 22

contended that the more valuable pleasures are those which employ “higher faculties” such as “the pleasures of intellect, of the feelings and imagination, and of the moral sentiments”

Answer 22

John Stuart Mill