Utilitarianism Flashcards
Utilitarian ethics seeks to maximise the greatest happiness for the greatest number. If happiness’s equated with ? pleasures rather than a wider sense of well-being and happiness, then utilitarianism could be used to legitimise a free, unregulated approach to sexual behaviour, giving people licence to have sex in and out of marriage and irrespective of sexual orientation can maximise pleasure.
Hedonistic.
Free love can lead to unhappiness if it results in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, shallow or unfulfilling relationships, or unwanted ?
Pregnancies.
? ? had a wider conception of the greatest good than pure pleasure, wanting greater well-being for everyone. Marriage rules protect the poor by restraining the sexual behaviour of the powerful towards those with no social power. Women are protected by the public nature of marriage and from men who might want to use them for ? ?
Jeremy Bentham.
Personal pleasure.
Christian teaching tells us that reduction’s one of the main reasons for sex, and the rules against premarital and extramarital sex are designed to foster the best possible environment for bringing up ?
Children.
Society needs children for continuation and care for the elderly. If the application of ? resulted in maximising pleasure, and everyone freely chose to use contraception and not have children, society would suffer and happiness for the greatest number wouldn’t be achieved. ? might argue that ethical rules about sexual behaviour that facilitate reproduction.
Utilitarianism.
Utilitarians.
Utilitarians might argue that ? should be prohibited in the interests of the majority, especially if the majority view it as harmful to society. ? ? ?, a libertarian utilitarian, believed it was important to prevent mass social prejudice restricting the rights and happiness of individuals. His focus on the ? measures of happiness, on measuring the worth of different pleasures and pains, would place the pleasure and happiness of the homosexual minority above the pain of those who oppose homosexuality and would prevent mob instincts governing the lives of those who are different.
Homosexuality.
John Stuart Mill.
Qualitative.
