Utilitarianism

Question 1

Higher and Lower Pleasures

Answer 1

‘It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied’ - JS Mill

Higher pleasures require education to understand e.g. philosophy

Lower pleasures e.g. sex

Classist

Question 2

Rule Utilitarianism

Answer 2

JS Mill’s rule utilitarianism puts that an act is only moral if it produces the most happiness and is in line with a set of rules

The Harm Principle

Those who have experience both ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pleasures can be ‘competent judges’ on as to a what a ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pleasure is

Strong rule utilitarianism has certain rules which should never be broke, whereas weak utilitarianism is more flexible rules

Question 3

Act Utilitarianism

Answer 3

Teleological

Pleasure = Good

Bentham’s Principle of Utility puts that you should pursue ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ and that ‘it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong’

‘Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure’- Bentham

Question 4

Criticisms of Act Utilitarianism (x4)

Answer 4

The Hedonic Calculus cannot be used in day-to-day situations

Kant wrote that the ‘ends do not justify the means’ and that we should not use people as ‘a means to an end. Against teleological

Bentham deemed natural rights as ‘nonsense upon stilts’ and act utilitarianism allows actions such as mass murder or gang rape

Sir Bernard Williams thought that if everyone followed act utilitarianism that the resulting society would not be good e.g. organs

Question 5

Criticisms of Rule Utilitarianism (x3)

Answer 5

Strong rule utilitarians are guilty of rule worship and absolutism. Fletcher supports situational ethics. Stealing money could produce pleasure, as could gang rape

Weak rule utilitarianism picks and chooses when it follows rule, making the rules arbitrary

Mill’s higher and lower pleasures are classist, as not everyone has access to education on academic and leisure subjects e.g. philosophy and opera

Question 6

Bentham’s Hedonic Calculus

Answer 6

Calculates the pleasure produced by an action

Duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and an extent of pleasure are all factored in

Unlikely that the hedonic calculus could be used in a real-life situation

Question 7

Criticism of Preference Utilitarianism

Answer 7

Singer thought that babies that potentially had haemophilia should be killed after they were born, rather than aborted in the womb as ‘Self-awareness, which could provide a basis for holding that it is wrong to kill one being and replace it with another, is not to be found in either the foetus or the new-born infant’ - Singer

Question 8

Preference Utilitarianism

Answer 8

Peter Singer thinks we should seek the good which we rationally prefer as an outcome, even if it to our own detriment

Strictly and unemotionally apply the principles of utilitarianism seeking the general satisfaction of preferences

As there is much more agreement about what causes pain rather than pleasure, people should seek to minimise pain