Utilitarianism Flashcards
What is the simple basis of utilitarianism
the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people, a relativist teleological theory as there are no fixed concepts or rules
Hedonistic
Pleasure is the true good that should be pursued
What is Benthams reasoning for utility principle
Humans are naturally more inclined to wan to pursue pleasure and avoid pain so we should practice what provides the greatest amount of pleasure over pain
Utility Principle
We should do whatever is most useful in terms of achieving greatest amount of overall good
Hedonic calculus
benthams calculation for measuring overall pleasure and pain from an act based on its consequences
What are the seven qualities in the hedonic calculus
- Intensity of pain or pleasure
- Duration of pain or pleasure
- Certainty of pain or pleasure
- Closeness of pain or pleasure to act
- Fecundity, will it lead to more pleasure pain
- Extent or reach of pain pleasure
- Purity of pain or pleasure
Why is the hedonic calculus reasonable
It considers the long term implications of an action as well as considering others wellbeing
What is the common objection to utilitarianism
It is a swine ethic that treats humans like pigs valuing pleasure the same and only pleasure and pain but humans are more than that
What is the main critique of Benthams pleasure principle
Can justify atrocities like gang rape as the pleasure of the rapers outweighs the pain of the victim
quantitive and qualitative
Bentham is quantitative but mill is qualitative
Who aimed to correct Benthams flaws by arguing about different types of pleasure
Mill
Higher pleasures
Intellectual and social pleasures only humans can enjoy
Lower pleasures
Bodily pleasures humans and animals enjoy like food or sex
What does benthams quantitive utilitarianism risk
Tyranny of the majority
What did Bentham compare to show all pleasures are the same
Pushpin gas and poetry
What did Mill argue about higher and lower pleasures
Higher pleasures greatly outweigh lower pleasures in decision making
What is Mills non harm principle
All individual should be free to live as they wish as long as it doesn’t cause nay harm to others
Reasons why Utilitarianism is helpful in moral decision making
- Straightforward ethic that can be understood by all people
- Difficult to object to the basic principle that happiness is a good thing, has a good aim
- secular ethic that doesn’t rely on god
- democratic and impartial in decision making as it counts all people equally, egalitarian
- progressive allowing society to modernise
- maintains sovereignty of person upholding reasoning ability
- scientific in asserting pleasure over pain
Reasons why Utilitarianism is not helpful in moral decision making
- Application of the theory is difficult as consequences of an action may go on for years
- Requires difficult even impossible task of predicting consequences, problem with teleological
- Can lead to oppression of minorities through tyranny of the majority, Bentham opposed human rights
- Pain and pleasure can be difficult to measure
- Pleasure isnt always good, sadisitic murderer
- Happiness is subjective
- Ignores other human values like justice
What is the problem of incommensurability
Greatest good for greatest number, which do we rank first
How does Bernard Williams criticise Utilitarianism
Thought experiment that someone is faced with killing one person to save ten people, if this was the right thing to do they wouldn’t have trouble with killing that one person
Act utilitarianism
Produce the best balance of good over evil in each case looking at every decision situationally, lying can be good but also bad
Rule Utilitarianism
Also aims fro best balance of good over evil but more focus on the common good of society rather than the individual so has common rules which tend to be followed which benefit society, rules aren’t fixed
Strong rule utilitarianism
Once rules that lead to the greatest good have been decided these can not be broken
Weak rule utilitarianism
Allows for rules to be broken if the situation demands it
Which utilitarianism would Mill be seen as and why
Weak rule because his principles of non harm and liberty seem like general rules for the benefit of society, he also isnt legalistic and sees the benefit of lying in Kants murderer example
Reasons why Act utilitarianism is better
- Very flexible with the case by case decision making, however that takes a lot of time
- Weak rule utilitarianism allows for more and more exceptions to the point it essentially becomes act with no general rules
- Strong rule can lead to Cleary irrational decisions as it becomes legalistic
Reasons why Rule utilitarianism is better
- Act relies on pleasure which is flawed
- more practical approach as most cases aren’t incredibly unique so general rules can be enforced most the time
- Upholds justice and human rights which can get lost in act
Mcloskey example
Sheriff arrests an innocent man for the greater good, this could be justified in act. But in rule it couldn’t be as it undermines justice
Hadyn and the oyster
Immortal oyster lives forever experiencing a higher quantity of happiness, but Hadyn experiences higher quality of pleasure through his music
What is the swine ethic quote
Better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied
How does Mills argue pleasure can be measured
By looking at what people desire you can see people desire pleasure and happiness this is peoples goal, so happiness and pleasure are good things
What is Mills analogy for measuring pleasure
To determine what is visible, we can only prove this by examining what we can see. Thus to determine what is desirable we can look at what people desire
What is the distribution problem
Impossible to measure pleasure and pain because if you put numerical values on pleasure herons, this can be distributed in different ways, greatest number or greatest pleasure
Reasons why goodness can be measured
- Can see what people desire and if they are achieving their desires and if this brings pleasure or happiness so can measure goodness
- Preference utilitarianism avoids difficulties of measuring pleasure as it always enforces overall happiness
- Neuroscience advancements provides possibility of measuring pleasure and happiness with brain monitoring
Reasons why goodness cannot be measured
- No unit of measure for happiness and pleasure
- pleasure and pain are every subjective so measurement should be completely different for all people
- to measure pleasure and happiness this would assume all variants of pleasure are the same, would higher and lower pleaures need to be weighted
How does GE Moore criticise Utilitarianism
Pleasure may not be a good value
Preference Utilitarianism
Recognises people have different view about happiness, people should be able to pursue their preference as long as it doesn’t interfere with others, people must be impartial observers looking at everything objectively
Who came up with preference utilitarianism
Singer
What does preference express different to the others
Rights of animals taking into account that they have their own preferences
How has Singer changed recently
Believes in a more hedonistic view of utilitarianism as he believes it is morally wrong to not give to charity
Explain Nozicks experience machine
There is a machine that when entered will give every possible pleasurable sensation you could ever wish without experiencing them in real life. Nozick suggests we would reject this offer as we value real life experience more, showing how pleasure is not the ultimate goal of life
Reasons why Utility is a good basis for making moral judgements
- It is progressive and has been used to ban slavery give votes to women
- Utility provides clarity in every situation of being able to solve a dilemma
- Pragmatic option that works in the real world
Reasons why Utility is a bad basis for moral judgements
- Utility is understood in terms of pleasure, but this isnt most important to people
- If utility is similar to preference then whose preferences are more valuable, child or snail
- Utility is too demanding, becomes morally wrong to treat ourselves as we must always be altruistic
- Duty agape telos are better principles
What is another huge error with utilitarianism
May allow for self harm if it results in more good for others
