Utilitarianism

Question 1

Describe Jeremy Bentham

Answer 1

• He was an Atheist
• Studied law at but later reformed the law.
• Born in 1778-
• He is known as the ‘father of modern utilitarianism’
• Advocated for gender equality and animal rights

Question 2

What is the definition of Act Utilitarianism?

Answer 2

Act Utilitarians maintain that when possible, the principle of Utility should be applied directly to each individual moral situation.

Question 3

What is the definition of consequentialism?

Answer 3

The morality of an action is held in the consequences.

Question 4

What is Hedonism?

Answer 4

Pleasure is the sole good and pain is the sole evil. Human beings are motivated by pleasure and pain.

Question 5

What is Equity?

Answer 5

Everyone’s happiness is of equal importance.

Question 6

What is the Greatest Happiness Principle?

Answer 6

Maximisation of pleasure and the minimisation of pain.

Question 7

Finish the quote… “Nature has placed mankind…

Answer 7

“… under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.”

Question 8

What is the Hedonic Calculus?

Answer 8

This is Bentham’s method of calculating how much happiness and unhappiness is created in an action.

Question 9

What are the 7 components of the hedonic calculus?

Answer 9

Intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity and extent.

Question 10

Explain intensity

Answer 10

How strong the pain or pleasure is.

Question 11

Explain duration

Answer 11

Whether the pain or pleasure is short-lived or life-long.

Question 12

Explain certainty

Answer 12

How certain the pain or pleasure is.

Question 13

Explain propinquity

Answer 13

If the pleasure or pain is immediate or would there be a wait?

Question 14

Explain fecundity

Answer 14

If the pain or pleasure is likely to lead to more.

Question 15

Explain purity

Answer 15

Would it lead to suffering for others?

Question 16

Explain extent

Answer 16

How many people are affected by the pain or pleasure?

Question 17

What are the strengths of Act Utilitarianism?

Answer 17

• Easy to apply (happiness runs very much in line with common sense and the GHP comes naturally to us.)
  -Cultural diversity (takes into account cultural diversity because different options make different cultures happy.)
  -Humanistic (seeks to maximise a human goal(pleasure) and does not seek authority from another source, like religion)
  -Flexibility (can take into account any situation. One consequence may be better in one scenario but the next time you don’t have to do the same thing)

Question 18

What are the weaknesses of Act Utilitarianism?

Answer 18

-Impractical (We don’t always have time to apply the Hedonic Calculus to every moral dilemma)
-Too demanding (do we really favour everyone equally?)
- Quantitative (it is quantitative rather than qualitative, meaning it can lead to evil pleasures.)
-Tyranny of the Majority ( evil pleasures)

Question 19

Describe JS Mill.

Answer 19

• He was a child prodigy.
• His father was a follower of Bentham and Mill was heavily influenced by Bentham.
• Mill was Bentham’s godson.
• Mill is associated with Rule Utilitarianism.

Question 20

Why did Mill want to change Utilitarianism?

Answer 20

He was concerned about Tyranny of the majority and evil pleasures because what was stopping one person from being extinguished by the majority?

Question 21

What is the difference between higher and lower pleasures?

Answer 21

Higher pleasures are intellectual and lower pleasures are physical and animalistic.

Question 22

Finish the quote… “Better to be a human being…

Answer 22

“… dissatisfied than a pig satisfied. Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”

Question 23

Give examples of Higher pleasures.

Answer 23

Reading poetry, watching theatre, going to the opera.

Question 24

Give examples of lower pleasures.

Answer 24

Eating, sex, drinking

Question 25

What is a competent judge?

Answer 25

Someone who has sufficient experience of higher and lower pleasures but will always choose higher pleasures.

Question 26

What are the rules of Rule Utilitarianism?

Answer 26

Do not kill, do not steal, do not lie and protect the innocent.

Question 27

How would Mill apply Rule Utilitarianism?

Answer 27

He still follows the Principle of Utility and the GHP. However, the GHP would be based on the greatest amount of happiness, for the most amount of people for the most amount of time. It would be better to have a small amount of higher pleasures than a large amount of lower pleasures.

Question 28

What are the criticisms of JS Mills utilitarianism and higher and lower pleasures?

Answer 28

-Elitist (Mill is an intellectual and believed that intellectual pleasures are intrinsically more valuable than others, this is arrogant of him.
-He assumes that everyone would choose higher pleasures ( this is not the case necessarily because you get instant pleasure from lower pleasures)

Question 29

Explain Hard Rule Utilitarianism

Answer 29

Insists that rules are never broken.

Question 30

Explain Soft Rule Utilitarianism

Answer 30

Involves deviating from fixed rules on occasion, for example if it saves someones life and no one would be adversely affected.

Question 31

What are the strengths of Rule Utilitarianism?

Answer 31

-Stops immoral actions (e.g. if a judge is faced with a mob demanding the murder of an innocent man or the mob is going to riot, the judge wouldn’t allow the murder of the man because it’s wrong to kill.
-Time saver (if we have general rules that we can apply then this is less time consuming)

Question 32

What are the weaknesses of Rule Utilitarianism?

Answer 32

• What rules? (There are no definitive set of rules to follow so you have to figure it out yourself)
  -Soft rule collapses into act (if a soft rule can choose when to follow rules, is this just the same as Act?)