Utilitarianism

Question 1

What is a hedonist?

Answer 1

someone who loves pleasure

Question 2

what are pleasure and pain measured in?

Answer 2

hedons and dolors

Question 3

how does an act utilitarian make decisions?

Answer 3

An act utilitarian assess how much pleasure each act brings, laws and moral actions should be reasoned, must try to bring together public and private interests

Question 4

did bentham distinguish between qualities of pleasure?

Answer 4

no

Question 5

what did bentham say talk of rights is?

Answer 5

“nonsense upon stilts”

Question 6

what does bentham say about nature?

Answer 6

• “nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign
• masters, pleasure and pain”

Question 7

what did bentham say regarding pleasures?

Answer 7

“pushpin is as good as poetry”

Question 8

what is the hedonic calculus?

Answer 8

• The hedonic calculus assesses the amount of pleasure gained in each act
• The calculus weighs up hedons and dolors to determine what brings the most happiness and least pain in a situation
• Bentham thought of it as ‘mathematical arithmetic’

Question 9

what are the seven factors of the hedonic calculus?

Answer 9

intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, extent

Question 10

Explain the sadistic guards example

Answer 10

• A group of guards are torturing an innocent prisoner and gain sadistic pleasure from this
• At first look, it does seem that more people are gaining happiness so Bentham might agree with this, however looking at the Hedonistic calculus it could be argued that the act is not very pure, the happiness might not be certain - they may feel guilt afterwards - the pleasure probably only had a short duration, and little extent, so overall it may not bring the greatest happiness.
• Problems with utilitarianism because of this example:
○ The guards are using the prisoner as a means to an end
○ It causes confusion as to what is actually moral because it justifies harmful acts
○ It doesn’t distinguish between different types of pleasure

Question 11

explain sandels lifeboat example?

Answer 11

Four men on a lifeboat, stranded with no food or water for weeks, killed ill orphaned cabin boy to eat him, other three were saved, but put on trial upon return to england

Question 12

why was mill a weak rule utilitarian?

Answer 12

• He saw some problems with Bentham’s thinking about pleasure and dismissed the idea that morality could be founded on lower pleasures.
Instead he claimed that decisions should be made based on whether they brought about higher qualities of pleasure

Question 13

what are higher pleasures?

Answer 13

intellectually demanding pleasures of the mind that develop virtues e.g. writing/reading poetry, viewing art, making music

Question 14

what are lower pleasures?

Answer 14

pleasures of the body that are necessary to survive in order to enjoy higher pleasures e.g. drinking, eating, drugs, sex

Question 15

why did mill value quality of pleasure?

Answer 15

○ “It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”

Question 16

what forms the basis of Mill’s utilitarianism?

Answer 16

• The Golden Rule - “treat others as you would like to be treated”
• Liberty - An individual should have the right to do as they wish as long as no harm is caused to others.
• No harm principle
• Virtues
• Higher pleasures
• Human rights
• Naturalism - evidence from the natural world

Question 17

what is the difference between weak and strong rule utilitarianism?

Answer 17

• A weak rule utilitarians believe that rules should exist however there can be some occasions where the rules are broken to bring about the greatest happiness
• A strong rule utilitarian (eg Brandt) is a person who holds that there must be universal rules that cannot be broken that bring the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

Question 18

what did mill write in a letter to thomas carlyle?

Answer 18

“happiness is a fact”

Question 19

what did mill say about testing actions?

Answer 19

”…the right way of testing actions is to test them by the natural consequences of the particular action, and not by those which would follow if everyone did the same.”

Question 20

what are the problems with weak rule utilitarianism?

Answer 20

can be elitist as lower pleasures were “worthy of swine”

Question 21

what did peter singer believe?

Answer 21

• Preferences matter and should be maximised
• Sometimes preferences and happiness can coincide
• True preference is well reasoned and considers consequences of actions
• Have to respect a harmful desire if it satisfies someone’s preference and is informed.
• Something is good if it satisfies desires, bad if it does not.
• Trade offs-are important because they are dependent on empirical calculations/some preferences must be ignored or deferred so that the general good is maintained.

Question 22

what are the strengths of singer?

Answer 22

• puts people before hard rules
• secular - applicable to different society/culture
• relative

Question 23

what are the weaknesses of singer?

Answer 23

• difficult to calculate what preferences take priority
• dostoevsky - people cannot cope without
• hobbes - people’s preferences can be selfish
• regan - animals have no rights/preferences

Question 24

strengths of utilitarianism

Answer 24

• does not appeal to scripture as a source of authority
• empirical evidence - humans want to be happy and avoid pain
• teleological

Question 25

weaknesses of utilitarianism

Answer 25

• teleological outcomes are not predictable
• empirical evidence points to nml and divine purposes
• greatest happiness leaves unhappy minority (Macintyre)
• elitist