Evaluation of Utilitarianism
- Created by: Emma
- Created on: 13-04-14 17:00
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- Evaluation of Utilitarianism
- Bentham
- Reasonable to link morality with pursuit of happiness and avoidance of pain and misery
- Natural to consider consequences of actions
- Balanced, democratic morality that promotes general happiness
- Doesn't support individual pursuits that are at expense of majority
- Practically applicable to real-life situations
- Weaknesses
- Need to be sure that consequences will definitely happen
- Humans don't have accurate foresight
- Can different pleasures and pains be easily quantified? Some pain is good for us and is there for a reason
- Hedonic Calculus isn't as straightforward as it seems, can actions be declared good by an empirical test?
- Guarantees nothing for minorities: bullies, slave masters etc all have actions justified by gaining more pleasure
- John Rawls: "The striking feature of justice is that it does not matter, except indirectly, how this sum of satisfactions is distributed among indiviudals
- Alasdair McIntyre in his book 'A short history of Ethics' notes Utilitarianism could justify horrendous acts that benefit majorities
- "That men are happy with their lot never entails that their lot is what it ought to be"
- Failure to recognise different views on happiness
- Asserts common agreement on what brings pleasure and pain
- People have different tastes in music, art and there are people who enjoy experiencing pain
- Premise on which utilitarianism is built is severely weakened
- People have different tastes in music, art and there are people who enjoy experiencing pain
- Asserts common agreement on what brings pleasure and pain
- Need to be sure that consequences will definitely happen
- Proved popular and useful since formation
- Henry Sidgwick 'The Methods of Ethics'
- Rejected Bentham's view that people pursured own pleasure
- Replaced with ethical hedonism - individuals should seek general happiness
- Rejected Bentham's view that people pursured own pleasure
- Peter Singer 'Practical Ethics'
- Preference Utilitarianism
- Our ethical decisions should benefit interests of those affected rather than pleasure and no individual's interests are more valuable than others'
- Preference Utilitarianism
- Henry Sidgwick 'The Methods of Ethics'
- Conclusion
- Modern forms of utilitarianism don't fully address all criticisms: concern for justice and minority issues linked to human rights question utilitarianism's usefulness!
- But it remains a persuasive ethical theory due to its practical dimension, providing organisations with clear-cut decision making systems
- Modern forms of utilitarianism don't fully address all criticisms: concern for justice and minority issues linked to human rights question utilitarianism's usefulness!
- Bentham
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