Utilitarianism

Question 1

what type of theory is utilitarianism?

Answer 1

Consequentialist theory - the morality of actions is judged by the outcomes that they produce

Question 2

who was utilitarianism created by?

Answer 2

Jeremy Bentham and later developed by John Stuart Mill

Question 3

what is meant by utility?

Answer 3

utility means usefulness of an action in bringing about certain consequences - for Bentham pleasure and for Singer preference.

Question 4

What does utilitarianism propose?

Answer 4

The greatest good is whatever brings the most happiness to the most people and actions are morally right if they maximise overall utility

Question 5

what is the greatest happiness principle?

Answer 5

actions are right if they promote pleasure and wrong if they produce pain.

Question 6

what is Bentham’s hedonic calculus?

Answer 6

an algorithm for measuring pleasure or pain coming from specific actions which considers factors such as intensity, duration, certainty, etc. it is needed because we need to calculate how much pleasure compared to pain an action will lead to

Question 7

what is Mill’s qualitative hedonism?

Answer 7

redirects utilitarianism from only quantifying the pleasure to including the quality of the pleasures (high and low pleasures)

Question 8

what are higher and lower pleasures?

Answer 8

higher pleasures are caused by mental activity (doing philosophy) and lower pleasures are caused by bodily activity (sex).

Question 9

how do we distinguish higher and lower pleasures?

Answer 9

we need COMPETENT JUDGES - people who have experienced both higher and lower pleasures - to distinguish. Mill claims that they always prefer higher pleasures

Question 10

why are higher and lower pleasures necessary?

Answer 10

if only quantity of pleasure was our ultimate desire, it doesn’t make sense that there would be preference for higher pleasures - so our desire is for greater QUALITY not QUANITITY

Question 11

what is Mill’s proof of the greatest happiness principle?

Answer 11

p1) the only proof that something is visible is that it can be seen
p2) the only proof that something is desirable is that it is desired
p3) happiness is desired
c) happiness is desirable
p4) what’s desirable is good
c2) happiness is good

Question 12

what are the two variations of utilitarianism?

Answer 12

ACT - examines the utility of each individual action, an action is right if it maximises utility (BENTHAM)
RULE - considers the utility of rules of conduct. an action is morally right if it follows the rule that would lead to the greatest happiness in most situations.

Question 13

what is strong utilitarianism?

Answer 13

argues that one should always act in a way that maximises utility - an ABSOLUTE

Question 14

what is weak utilitarianism?

Answer 14

proposes that maximising utility is generally a good thing but it does not ALWAYS need to be the determining factor

Question 15

what is the whether pleasure is the only good criticism?

Answer 15

Nozick’s thought experiment shows that pleasure was not the only good which proves utilitarianism wrong.
if a machine existed which could stimulate a fake reality of ONLY POSITIVE experiences, would people plug themselves in? NO THEY WOULDNT because they value their real experiences.

Question 16

response to whether pleasure is the only good criticism

Answer 16

a utilitarian would have to show that those who would choose not to enter are CONFUSED. they would argue that the reason for not entering the machine may appear to be different to a desire for happiness but they actually are. people value connection to reality as they want to ensure that humans are as happy as possible so utilitarianism is STILL TRUE.

Question 17

what is the individual rights criticism?

Answer 17

the moral basis of human rights is deontological in that human rights are intrinsically good which is INCOMPATIBLE with utilitarianism because it says something is only good because of happiness not anything INTRINSIC.

Question 18

what is the problem of calculation?

Answer 18

we need to know all the consequences of an action, and also all of the possible consequences - yet how can we predict the future. how can we make difficult calculations quickly for EVERY SITUATION. the calculations of amount of pleasure and pain will lead to measuring subjective feelings.

Question 19

response to the problem of calculation

Answer 19

BENTHAM - ‘an action is right regarding the tendency which it appears to have’ so we only need to have a reasonable expectation of what the consequences will be based on how similar action have tended to turn out in the past.
MILL - the moral rightness of an action depends on maximising happiness and our moral obligation is to do our BEST to follow the principles geared towards producing happiness.

Question 20

what is the issue around partiality?

Answer 20

utilitarianism holds that we should do whatever action leads to the greatest happiness for the greatest number. it requires that we act impartially. our family’s feelings are not above those of a strangers. it is difficult to act along such lines due to the evolutionary psychology of human nature.

Question 21

what is the tyranny of the majority criticism?

Answer 21

if a large country invaded a smaller country and there was more pleasure caused than pain, then it is a morally good action.

Question 22

response to tyranny of the majority

Answer 22

rule utilitarianism gives the general rule that invading countries leads to more unhappiness in the long run, so it would not be moral.

Question 23

what is preference utilitarianism?

Answer 23

invented by Hare and Singer - it is NON-HEDONISTIC but claims that utility involves the satisfaction of PREFERENCES
MUST BE PARTIAL