Utilitarianism Flashcards
How did Bentham begin his theory?
Bentham began his theory with analysing human nature, he stated that “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.”
What was Bentham?
He was a hedonist and believed that pleasure is the sole and good and pain is the sole evil.
Pleasure and pain are the basis for the moral distinction between good and bad and tells us what is right and wrong.
Describe the principle of utility:
Bentham then developed these ideas in the principle of utility and said that the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its utility, which is something that produces happiness.
What do people sum utility up as?
Many sum this up as the greatest happiness principle. The principle of utility therefore states that an action ought to be done if and only if it maximises the happiness for those affected by the action.
This is a teleological theory as it seeks to maximise the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Why did Bentham create utilitarianism:
Bentham hoped to create a rational and secular moral approach through the theory of utilitarianism due to his desire to improve social conditions of the masses due to the rapid industrialisation and political revolution which created oppressed individuals.
Describe the hedonic calculus:
Bentham believed that pain and pleasure were measurable so that actions can be judged right and wrong on the basis of a kind of moral arithmetic.
Bentham trusts that his hedonic calculus enables people to calculate or quantify of pleasure.
An individual should measure the intensity, duration, certainty, remoteness, fecundity, purity and extent of any pleasure and pain.
What did Stuart Mill say about utilitarianism:
Stuart Mill recognised the problem of the emphasis that Bentham’s theory placed on base pleasure and revised the theory to involve the maximisation of happiness rather than pleasure.
What did Mill argue?
He argued that pleasures of the mind are better and more valuable than pleasures of the body.
Mill also believes that if ‘competent judges’ were appointed to choose between pleasures of the intellect and ‘lower’ pleasures of the flesh, they would choose the intellectual pleasures.
What is the key criticism of utilitarianism:
A key criticism of Utilitarianism is that it can be used to justify certain abhorrent acts in the name of maximising happiness.
This is overcome by the introduction of Rule Utilitarianism over Act Utilitarianism
Outline Act utilitarianism:
Act utilitarianism looks at the consequences of each individual act and calculates utility each time the act is performed.
Act utilitarians would say that following a rule in a particular case when the overall utility demands that we violate the rule is just rule-worship.
Outline Rule utilitarianism:
Rule utilitarianism looks at consequences of having everyone follow a particular rule and calculates the overall utility of accepting or rejecting the rule.
Rule utilitarians claim that act utilitarianism can justify disobeying important moral rules and violating individual rights.
Mill developed Rule utilitarianism to allow communities to develop rules and a base for morality.
How did Singer modify utilitarianism?
Singer modified utilitarianism into preference utilitarianism as it is not so much concerned with pain and pleasure as with allowing people to satisfy as many of their preferences as possible.
What does Singer think about hedonistic utilitarianism:
Singer thinks Hedonistic utilitarianism is for people who can’t imagine their own future: preference utilitarianism is for those individuals who can.
Singer believes that we should be an impartial spectator and that “our own preferences cannot count anymore than the preferences of others”. So we should take account of all the people affected by our actions.
How does singer extend preference utilitarianism?
Singer extends his preference utilitarianism to all sentient beings to include animals and he believes that preference is influenced by self-awareness and that babies should not be considered “persons” until they are 1 month old.
Evaluate utilitarianism as being a consequentialist ethical theory:
UT depends on peoples ability to judge the consequences of their actions.
If consequences are unpredictable, UT collapses.
However many individuals do judge actions to be right/wrong based on consequences
Example: most debates on abortion,climate change etc are formed in terms of likely consequences.
