Utilitarianism Flashcards
The Hedonic Caculus includes:
Fecundity, Extent, Duration, Purity, Propinquity, Intensity and Certainty
Fecundity is?
How likely it is that the pleasure from an action will be followed by similar pleasures
Propinquity measures?
How close the pleasure is in time and space.
Who believes in Rule Utilitarianism and what is it?
John Mill - higher and lower pleasures It’s qualitative.
Is utilitarianism teleological or deontological?
Teleological
Who believes in Act Utilitarianism and what is it?
Jeremy Bentham - Hedonic Calculus, quantitative
Criticisms of Act Utilitarianism
Time and resource consuming. Justifies any action. Can be biased. Not possible to assess every situation. Difficult to take into account the effect on others/ in the long run.
Criticisms of Rule Utilitarianism
Rules might be pointless or immoral.
Minorities aren’t accounted for.
Hedonism
Bentham believes humans are motivated by pleasure
Positives of Act Utilitarianism
Flexible - takes into account individual situations.
A good action is one that leads to the greatest good in that situation.
Leads to greatest result in the community.
Not as time consuming.
Still has absolute right and wrongs.
Examples of higher pleasures
Pleasures that stimulate the mind: learning, art, literature, opera.
Higher pleasures bring happiness?
In the long run
Mill believed Bentham’s utilitarianism does what?
It reduces humans - he thinks we have more than basic animal instincts.
Utilitarianism and religion both
Aim to maximise happiness and welfare for everyone.
Both aim to bring the ‘greatest’ happiness.
Utilitarianism is different to religion
It has no rules.
It has no moral absolutes.
It’s teleological (Christianity is denteological)
Main goals are happiness and pleasure.
People have to be autonomous agents (eg. not a baby or a person in a coma)
