Utilitarianism

Question 1

Explain Bentham’s utilitarianism

Answer 1

• act utilitarian
• we are ruled by two basic instincts: pleasure and pain; “it is for them alone to point out what we ought to do as well as to determine what we shall do”
• held a quantitive approach (max pleasure min pain)
• the algorithm for utility is the hedonistic calculus

Question 2

Evaluate Bentham’s utilitarianism

Answer 2

+ reasonable to link morality with the pursuit of happiness
- doesn’t say an action is right if it actually maximises happiness, can be right if we can reasonably expect that it will maximise happiness
- no type of action is ruled out as immoral (torturing a child example)
CP: if people found out about the torturing of a child, then there would be more pain less pleasure
CCP: surely torturing a child remains immoral, whether or not many people know about it or not

Question 3

Explain Mill’s utilitarianism

Answer 3

• believed utilitarians could make “rules of thumb” to live by, e.g. ‘do not kill’ as generally it will produce more happiness, even if in some cases it will produce happiness to kill someone (e.g. Hitler)
• qualitative utilitarian; “better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied”, there are higher and lower pleasures
• we should not aim for pleasure but for happiness

Question 4

Evaluate Mill’s utilitarianism

Answer 4

+ takes into account that some pleasures are worth more
+ Use of rules can avoid us doing something that seems instinctively wrong just to produce pleasure
- potential to seem elitist due to its emphasis on intellectual pleasures
- is happiness the right of morality at all? It treats people as ‘receptacles’ for happiness which fails to show them in proper respect
- Kant: happiness is not always morally good (torturing child)
- other values than happiness? Even if pursuing values gives us happiness it is not necessarily the happiness that matters but the blue itself

Question 5

Explain R.M Hare’s split-level utilitarianism

Answer 5

1. Intuitive moral rules = rule util - use this day to day
2. Critical level of moral reasoning = act util - when there are clashes between our moral rules
   - Archangel = calculating moral machine (Bentham)
   - Prole = only follows rules and doesn’t reason morally when making decisions
   - A + P counter balance each other + eliminate weaknesses => need to move between two levels

Question 6

Evaluate Hare’s split-level utilitarianism

Answer 6

+ shows us what to do when rules conflict + how we don’t always have to act on abstract reason but rather on intuition
- Aristotle: thinking in one of these ways requires habits and virtues, but the virtues are different for each level => may conflict each other and make your virtues inconsistent

Question 7

Explain Singer’s preference/interest utilitarianism

Answer 7

• we value what gives us pleasure over other peoples pleasure + we can only know about our pleasures => you can’t offer a universal moral system
• need to adjust principle of utility where we should meet as many people’s interests as possible
• animals are sentient beings => capable of having preferences => they are moral agents

Question 8

Evaluate Singer’s preference/interest utilitarianism

Answer 8

• Kant: animals lack the ability to reason and that is what makes us an moral agent
  + Singer highlights how our pleasures will eventually collapse into subjectivity => we need to take into account the interest/preferences of the majority rather than just ourselves
• Preferences could collapse into subjectivity