Utilitarianism Flashcards
Bentham’s act utilitarianism
Utility calculus
An action can be judged on whether its right or wrong based on consequences.
Issues including:
Tyranny of the majority
Issue including:
Who is morally relevant?
Animals experimce pain/pleasure too, so would they be included in the calculation? The issue is that it is harder to quantify the impact on animals as we dont know how they feel.
Issue including:
Calculation
Having toncalculate the effects of your actions is inconvenient at best.
Mills proof of the greatest happiness principle
Mill says that happiness is the only good because 1) people desire happiness, 2) general happiness of humanity is desired, 3) any other end is pursued for happiness.
Higher and lower pleasure
(Mill)
A competent judge is one who has experienced both higher and lower pleasure.
Issues including:
Weak rule utilitarianism
Smart says that weak rule utilitarianism is the same as act util as you can modify the rules to suit the situation. Smart also critisizes ruke utilitarianists as rule worshippers.
Rule utilitarianism
Secondary principles: We should have guiding principles where we use our knowledge of certain actions to judge whether to act or not
Preference utilitarianism
(Non- hedonistic)
The morally right actions satisfies the greatest amount of morally relevant beings.
Issue w preference:
Bad preferences
A child whi only wants to eat icecream is an example of bad preference.
Solution: child can be overruled by parents as they dont understand their preferences.
Overall issue:
Nozicks experience machine
People can value other things above pleasure, like being in touch with reality.
Overall issue:
Intention
Intention isnt a factor.
Solution: intention helps jusdge people, not actions
Overall issue:
Undermining integrity
We praise people with integrity, but utilitarianism says it doesnt matter
