Utilitarianism
All you need to know about utilitarianism.
- Created by: Kieran Cutting
- Created on: 12-05-13 11:34
View mindmap
- Utilitarianism
- What is it?
- consequentialist
- cannot accurately predict consequences
- hedonistic
- utopian
- response to the Industrial Revolution
- rampant suffering + poverty
- no support for individuals who could not support themselves
- seeks to create a better society
- response to the Industrial Revolution
- radical
- post-Enlightenment
- appealing to non-religious people
- egalitarian
- all people's pleasure counts the same
- instrumental goods
- no absolutist rules - completely situational
- avoids the misery of deontological ethics
- consequentialist
- cannot accurately predict consequences
- consequentialist
- avoids the misery of deontological ethics
- no absolutist rules - completely situational
- consequentialist
- Bentham
- Principle of utility
- do the action which brings about the greatest sum of pleasure and the least sum of pain
- The hedonic calculus
- a calculus for pleasure calculation
- pleasure is quantitative
- not qualitative at all
- "Quantity of pleasure being equal, push-pin is equal to poetry."
- not qualitative at all
- pleasure is quantitative
- measured in hedons
- Seven criteria
- Fecundity
- Purity
- Extent
- Intensity
- Certainty
- Propinquity
- Duration
- a calculus for pleasure calculation
- "Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters: pain and pleasure."
- hedonistic
- Principle of utility
- Mill
- response to problems with Bentham's utilitarianism
- sadistic guards
- If many guards at a prison delight in harming prisoners, utilitarianism states they may do so
- pleasure is subjective
- sadistic guards
- Higher and lower pleasures
- Higher pleasures
- Intellectual
- Theatre, poetry
- "There is pleasure to be had in a clear conscience."
- Intellectual
- Lower pleasures
- Physical
- Sport, sex
- Physical
- often diffivult to distinguish between the two
- adds another quality to desire - worth - and thus is a movement away from pleasure being the sole good
- qualitative judgement - hedonic calculus made useless
- Higher pleasures
- A human who has experienced both will choose higher pleasures as humans are competent judges
- "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied."
- Mill is a culture snob
- response to problems with Bentham's utilitarianism
- Popper
- Negative utilitarianism
- Pain minimisation
- Negative utilitarianism
- Singer
- Preference utilitarianism
- All things have preference - if only to stay alive
- Preference utilitarianism
- Strengths
- animals are included in the moral kingdom
- "not, Can they reason?, nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" - Bentham
- has practical applications
- healthcare
- QALY calculations
- government
- policy
- healthcare
- animals are included in the moral kingdom
- Weaknesses
- fails to give an adequate account of justice
- oppression of minorities
- H. P. Macloskey's sheriff
- can arrest any black person
- denial of human rights
- Untitled
- denial of human rights
- can arrest any black person
- H. P. Macloskey's sheriff
- oppression of minorities
- "ignores the separateness of persons" - Rawls
- individuals only count as part of a utility calculus
- can cause a loss of moral integrity
- Bernard Williams - Jim and the Indians
- Jim is forced to become a killer no matter what
- Bernard Williams - Jim and the Indians
- can be one thought too many
- burning house example - who do you save?
- utilitarianism says the cancer-cure-man
- burning house example - who do you save?
- Sandel - rights are made hostage to continfency
- fails to give an adequate account of justice
- What is it?
Comments
No comments have yet been made