Week 7&8: Utilitarianism & Duty Ethics

Question 1

describe the trolley problem

Answer 1

• have to choose who to save/kill
• act on commission/do something
• act on omission/ don’t do anything
  
  • morally wrong through passivity
• push over obese person and save all

Question 2

what is moral injury?

Answer 2

forced to act against our principles

Question 3

describe utilitarianism

Answer 3

• based on consequences
• a form of consequentialism that holds that an act is right if the consequences are good for the most amount of people
  
  • ethics are based on consequences
• acts are right if they produce the best overall state of affairs
• the best overall state of affairs is that in which overall human happiness is maximized

Question 4

describe the different types of consequentialism

Answer 4

1. egoism: consequences that benefit me
2. altruism: consequences that benefit others
3. utilitarianism: consequences that benefit everyone overall

Question 5

describe radical uncertainty

Answer 5

• there are significant events that affect human society that are difficult/impossible to predict (when they happen and what the effects will be)
  
  • ex: investing in stocks and then the pandemic hit
• we do not know what will happen and the effect the event will have on society

Question 6

describe the difference between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism

Answer 6

• act utilitarianism:
  
  • when we think about counsequences, we think about the actual action
  • ex: consequence of 1 dying, 5 people live, so we kill one person who is healthy
• rule utilitarianism:
  
  • do not look at individual actions, want to look at rules.. look at the consequence as a law

Question 7

describe utility (happiness)

Answer 7

• choices are based on absolute number
• pleasure (hedon)- 18-19th century:
  
  • system that maximizes pleasure, minimize pain
  • ex: make popcorn or power hospital with one source of power
• preference satisfaction (modern utilitarianism) - 20th century:
  
  • choose the action that satisfy the majority
  • more modern view of utilitarianism
  • ex: 5 people prefer hospital vs. 1 person

Question 8

describe the principle of utility

Answer 8

• according to Bentham, the prinicple of utility is the tendency of an object or action to produce pleasure
• happiness consists in the realization of pleasure (utility) and the avoidance of pain (disutility)
• classical utilitarians are hedonists
• modern utilitarians focus on things like welfare or preference-satisfaction

Question 9

describe utility and measurement with Bentham’s utilitarian calculus

Answer 9

• one of Bentham’s goals is to turn ethics into a science
  
  • goal is to mathmatize ethics
  • measure pleasure
  • thinks we can quantify pleasure/compare pleasures
• Benthams utilitarian calculus:
  
  • mathematical analysis of pleasure
  • measure pleasure (unit is hedon)
  • do basic calculation of consequences to choose utility maximizing actions

Question 10

describe the mathematization of ethics

KNOW THIS

Answer 10

• mathematization and searching for a Newton of the moral world
  
  • want to explain the cause
    
    • universal gravitation (inverse square law) → use this to explain other effects (synthesis/prediction)
  • analyze the effect (explanation)
  • goal is to develop a mathematical model
• we want a mathematical view of ethics
• modern moral philosophy: from eudaimonistic (chracter-based) to jural (rule-based) ethics

Question 11

describe nomological worldview

Answer 11

• we understand the world as structuee according to scientific laws
  
  • gives us mathematical understanding of nature
• shiffts from qualitative approach of nature to quantitative
  
  • Isaac Newton
  • we understand gravity through mathematics
  • law based ethics

Question 12

describe hedonism

Answer 12

• happiness- understood as the realization of pleasure and avoidance of pain - is the motive for human actions
• 2 branches of hedonism:
  
  • psychological:
    
    • understand human motives
    • what motivates us
    • does not follow how we should act
    • we are motivated by pleasure and pain
  • ethical:
    
    • ought to behave - prescriptive
    • human beings ought to pursue pleasure and avoid pain
  • Epicuris and classical utilitarians are both of these

Question 13

describe the evolution of utilitarianism

Answer 13

• Bentham holds that happiness consists in maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain
• objection (Aristotle): this seems to reduce us to the level of animals
  
  • our happiness is the same as the happiness of animals
• Aristotle thinks there’s 3 elements to the human soul
  
  • rational - human beings
  • sensitive (bentham) - animal → pleasure will satisfy us at this level only.. so we are at the same level as animals
  • vegetative - plants
• Mill thinks there’s a pleasure os sense (share in common with animals), but we are also of a higher level of pleasure (pleasure of reason)

Question 14

describe the refinement of utilitarianism

Answer 14

• Mill thinks that utilitarianism can’t consist in the maximization of simple pleasures
  
  • there’s some pleasures we like more than others
• Pleasures are heterogenous (different types) and some are more valuable than others
  
  • have to think of pleasure of more than sensation
• pleasures do not simply vary in quantity but also in quality
• to determine which is the highest pleasure, we have to experience both and then choose the highest
• common agreement amongst those who appreciate both pleasures will determine which is the highest

Question 15

describe utilitarianism and technocracy

Answer 15

• libertarianism (individual liberty) vs. paternalism
• technocracy (rule by experts) vs. democracy (rule by the people)
• utilitarianism (paternalist) and effective altruism
• nudges and choice architecture