UTILITARIANISM Flashcards
is an ethical theory that argues for the goodness of pleasure and the
determination of right behavior based on the usefulness of the actions
consequences. This means that pleasure is good and that the goodness of action is determined by its usefulness. Putting these ideas together, utilitarianism claims that one’s action and behavior are good in as much
as they are directed toward the experience of which refers to the
usefulness of the consequences of one’s action and behavior.
utilitarianism
This means that the goodness or the badness of an action is based on whether it is
useful in contributing to a specific purpose
for the greatest number of people.
Their system of ethics emphasizes the consequences of actions:
This means that the moral value of actions and decisions is based solely or greatly on the
usefulness of their consequences; it is the
usefulness of results that determines whether
the action or behavior is good or bad.
Utilitarianism is consequentialist:
This means that the usefulness of actions is based on its promotion of happiness as the experience of pleasure for the greatest number of persons, even at the expense of some individual rights.
The utilitarian value pleasure
and happiness:
He was the teacher of
James Mill, father of John Stuart Mill.
JEREMY BENTHAM
Bentham first wrote about the
greatest happiness principle of
ethics and was known for a system of penal management called
PANOPTICON
Intellectual inheritor of David
Hume
Recognized as ‘Act Utilitarian’
Right actions result in ‘good or pleasure,’ wrong actions result
in pain or absence of pleasure.
The Principle of Utility
Law and Social Hedonism
Felicific Calculus
JEREMY BENTHAM
The principle of utility is about our subjection to these sovereign masters:
PLEASURE AND PAIN
Actions that lead to PLEASURE ARE RIGHT, ones that produce PAIN ARE WRONG.
VV
Ethics as Greatest Happiness
= Moral worth judged by presumed effect
= Action guided by pleasure/pain
SOCIAL HEDONISM
Government should not pass laws that protect tradition, customs or rights
Government should base all laws on the happiness principle
The greatest happiness for the greatest number
Bentham’s theory is both empirical (how much pain or pleasure is caused by the act or policy) and democratic
(each individual’s happiness is as important as any other’s)
LAW
common currency framework that calculates the pleasure that some actions can produce.
FELICIFIC CALCULUS
In this framework, an action can be evaluated on the basis of intensity or strength of pleasure;
DURATION or length of the experience of pleasure.
CERTAINTY, UNCERTAINTY, or the likelihood that pleasure will occur; and
PROPINQUITY, REMOTENESS, or how soon there will be pleasure.
or the likelihood that pleasure will occur; and
CERTAINTY AND UNCERTAINTY
or length of the experience of pleasure.
DURATION
