Utilitarianism
- Created by: Lauren Leak-Smith
- Created on: 06-03-13 16:10
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- Utilitarianism
- Jeremy Bentham
- "Ethics is about maximising pleasure and minimising pain"
- His theory (3 subdivisions)
- His view on what drove human beings, and what goodness/ badness is all about
- Hedonism: the belief that pleasure is the chief good
- Bentham said in principles of morals and legislation nature has placed mankind under the governance of pleasure and pain (two motivators)
- He believed that pleasure was the sole good and evil was the sole evil (hedonism)
- Bentham said that as human beings we pursue pleasure and try to avoid pain (moral fact) as they identify what we should and shouldnt do; they essentially determine what is moral.
- The principle of utility
- Utility Principle: the rightness and wrongness of an action is determined by its usefulness
- Usefulness refers to the amount of pleasure or happiness caused by an action (teleological theory- determines a good act by its end result).
- 'An action is right if it produces the greatest good to the greatest number'
- Greatest good= most happiness and least pain. Greatest number= majority of people. Good= the maximisation of pleasure and minimisation of pain.
- The hedonic calculus
- A utilitarian system whereby the effects of an action can be measured as to the amount of pleasure it may bring, using seven factors.
- The Seven Factors
- Its intensity
- Its duration
- Its certainty or uncertainty
- Its propinquity or remoteness
- Its fecundity (chances of it been followed by sensations of the same kind)
- Its purity (opposite to fecundity)
- The number of persons affected
- His view on what drove human beings, and what goodness/ badness is all about
- Act Utilitarianism
- A version of utilitarianism according to which the rightness of wrongness of individual acts are calculated by the amount of happiness resulting from these acts.
- The principle of utility must be directly applied separately to each individual in each situation
- PROBLEMS
- Different people will experience different amount of pleasure and pain in the same situation
- The hedonic calculus is complex to understand and can be slow to use in practice
- Utilitarians judge actions by their consequences, but we cannot accurately predict what will happen in the future- we cant be sure we are making the right judgement
- Theres more to life than pleasure: justice may be a part of it!
- PROBLEMS
- May experience different types of pleasure
- Following rules may lead to some very negative results in some cases.
- Utilitarians judge actions by their consequences, but we cannot accurately predict what will happen in the future- we cant be sure we are making the right judgement
- PROBLEMS
- Utilitarianism doesn't measure how pleasure is going to be distributed. This means there is no protection for minorities
- PROBLEMS
- May experience different types of pleasure
- Following rules may lead to some very negative results in some cases.
- PROBLEMS
- Extreme actions may be justified by there results, e.g the cinema example
- Judging each action on its own can lead to unfairly victimising some people
- POSITIVES
- Flexible: its able to take into account individual situations at any given time
- Considers many factors so the best decision can be made
- A family of theories by which all say that the one which produces the most usefulness
- John Stuart Mill
- Rule Utilitarianism
- Mill wasn't just concerned with quantitive (amount) pleasures like Bentham, he was also concerned with qualitative pleasures (value).
- Focuses on general rules that society should follow in order to attain the greatest good for that community; actions are therefore right or wrong depending on whether they conform to a happiness-making rule., not because of individual effects.
- Overcomes some of the difficulties of act utilitarianism.
- Minority interests are still not considered; slavery may still be a problem for example.
- Religious link: Mill argued as a utilitarian by attempting to attain the greatest good for the greatest number (shows concern for others) is similar to that of the Christian teaching to love your neighbour.
- Must obey rules even if it doesn't lead to ones greatest pleasure in that situation.
- Rule Utilitarianism
- Jeremy Bentham
- A family of theories by which all say that the one which produces the most usefulness
- Rule Utilitarianism
- Mill wasn't just concerned with quantitive (amount) pleasures like Bentham, he was also concerned with qualitative pleasures (value).
- Focuses on general rules that society should follow in order to attain the greatest good for that community; actions are therefore right or wrong depending on whether they conform to a happiness-making rule., not because of individual effects.
- Overcomes some of the difficulties of act utilitarianism.
- Minority interests are still not considered; slavery may still be a problem for example.
- Religious link: Mill argued as a utilitarian by attempting to attain the greatest good for the greatest number (shows concern for others) is similar to that of the Christian teaching to love your neighbour.
- Must obey rules even if it doesn't lead to ones greatest pleasure in that situation.
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