utilitarianism Flashcards
John rawls
Aggregating utility
Two distinct happiness cannot be connected togehter
Different consciousness which means pain and pleasure are unique to individuals
Nick Bostrom
Infiniatarian paralysis
Unvierse is infinite
If this is true there is an infinite amount of pain/pleasure
Humans can only affect a finite amount
Trying to maximise pleasure is pointless
Daniel Dennet
You cant calculate happiness and consequences are uncertain
Melt down at nuclear power point
Some people were happy because it advanced science
Some people were upset because it polluted a lake
We still can’t come to a conclusion
Robert Nozicks experience machine
being in touch with reality is more important than pleasure
Bernard Williams criticism
Jims predictament
A persons acts is not just about a state of affairs, but he is the person doing the act
He will be responsible for the death or allowing it
Utilitarianism disregards human agency, integrity and personal dilemma
Derek Parfit
Utilitarianism leads to a repungant conclusion
World analogy
quantity outweights quality
The principle of utility justifies extremely large populations living miserbale lives
Strengths
Promotes majority happiness through risks
Focuses on real world effects which can lead to clearer ethical outcomes
Not reliant on controversial religious concepts
Preference Utilitarianism (Singer)
Greatest satisfaction
eg. marathon runner trains to get a good score but the training conditions doesnt cause happiness
Challenges act utilitarianism- they dont shun pain
Negative Utilitarianism (Popper)
Prevents the greatest harm to the greatest number
Practical value- starving communtiy wants food not DVDs
Effective- more ways to do harm than good
Mill higher/lower order pleasures
Mill disagrees that all pleaures are comparable
There are high order pleasures eg. reading philosophy(mental)
There are low order pleasures eg. eating(bodily)
“It is better to be a dissatisfied human than a satisfied pig”
John Stuart Mill Rule Utilitarianism
Follow harm principle because those rules generally lead to greatest happiness
Stong rule utilitarianism- never break moral rules
Weak rule utilitarianism- many bend moral rules on certain occasions eg. starving man steals bread for his starving family
The harm principle
The problem with act utilitarianism is that it is pleasure for the majority but execution for minorities eg. nazis
The harm principle uses moral rules such as do not kill to restrict the impact someones pleasure has on another
Benthams Act
Principle of utility- greatest happiness for greatest number
Psychological hedonism- humans seek pleasure and shun pain
Commensurability- all pleasures are compareble
Felicific calculus- intensity, extent, certainty, duration, purity(followed by opposite), fecundity(additional pleasure or pain), proximity(how soon)
Social context
Developed by Jeremy Bentham in 18th century England to address social issues during industrialisation e.g. poverty and disease
