Utilitarianism Flashcards
what is the principle of utility
The principle of utility states that actions or behaviors are right in so far as they promote happiness or pleasure, wrong as they tend to produce unhappiness or pain. Hence, utility is a teleological principle.
what did jermery bentham believe?
The greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Is concerned about the outcome if it is positive, even if the act is wrong as long as the act bring happiness
Majoritarian consequentialist theory.
We judge what to do by the resulting outcome in terms of happiness/utility of the majority.
how does bentham think provides the proper answers to legislation?
Bentham thinks that using a utilitarian calculus, provides the proper answers to legislation .
what is benthams hedonic calculus? what are the parts7?
Intensity, duration,certainty, prop inquiry,fecundity, purity,and extent.
Each has to be assessed in order to assess the utility of an act
How is utility measured?
Utilitarianism may successful justify an outcome that results in the greatest utility without this requiring it favouring the greatest number
Society is composed of all the interests of individuals within society , therefore happiness will be increased if the total of all pleasures is greater than the total of their pains .
So the equation is somewhat more difficult than it seems
Benefits of bentham?
It provides a suitable ‘public conception of justice’ for a morally pluralistic society.
This theory does not privilege any particular moral ideal- each way of life is only assessed in terms of the pleasure or satisfaction that it brings.
All moral opinions are therefore considered equally.
what are the criticisms of bentham?
Is it possible to translate all moral goods into a single currency of value without losing something in the translation? (Philip Morris & the tobacco company).
Does it provide a moral basis for respecting and protection of individual rights? (Ticking time bomb scenario: torturing a suspected terrorist’s innocent baby!)
Can we know definite consequences of actions? How do we weight different people’s happiness?
What about the inclusion of pleasures of those who are evil? E.g Serial killers.
what is act utilitarianism?
Bentham is sometimes referred to as an Act Utilitarian because in his view each time you need to consider each act individually.
It advocates a relative approach to morality: the theory that the goodness of an action is circumstantial and variable within different situations.
Eg. Act utilitarian might think its ok to cross at a red signal and hope all others (not me) follow the rule and stay put as there’s no one around and can cross now.
what is rule utilitarianism?
Mill relies on rules more, and is sometimes known as a Rule Utilitarian as he follows rules.
This approach is protective of minority groups and less concerned with individual circumstances than the collective good.
Eg. will say you have to stop at a red light even if no ones there as its the rule and there maybe someone who might come out in a rush that you might not see.
what did mill believe in?
There are higher and lower pleasures—implying that pleasure is a necessary condition for goodness, but that goodness depends on qualities of experience other than pleasantness and unpleas-antness
