utilitarianism, detailed content
- Created by: sarah
- Created on: 02-01-13 21:29
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- Utilitarianism
- Bentham
- Principle of Utility
- rightness or/and wrongness determind by usefulness
- Usefulness refers to amount of happiness produced by action
- Utilitarianism
- Bentham
- Principle of Utility
- rightness or/and wrongness determind by usefulness
- Usefulness refers to amount of happiness produced by action
- Democratic theory: "Everybody is to count for one, and nobody for more than one"
- rightness or/and wrongness determind by usefulness
- humans motivated by p&p
- moral fact: humans pursued pleasure and sought to avoid pain
- "Nature has placed mankind under two sovereigns; pain and pleasure. they point out what we ought to do and what we shall do"
- Hedonic Calculus
- Remoteness= how near is the p&p?
- Certainty= will the p&p definitely follow?
- Richness= how likely will p&p repeat afterwards?
- Duration= how long it lasts?
- Purity= the chance of opposite sensation occuring
- Extent= no. of people affected by it
- Intensity= how strong p&p is?
- hedonist
- pleasure is chief good
- Pleasure is sole good and pain is sole evil
- Act Utilitarianism
- Flexible as laws and rules can be broken when necessary
- principle of utility directly applied to each situation
- decision is wrong or right depending on the consequences of the action
- Author should recieve max satisfication
- Principle of Utility
- "An action is right if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number"
- "Always act in such a way to Max pleasure and Min pain"
- Mill
- happiness best gained by individulas making own choices through rules that were for the common good of all
- life is best far from pain and rich in enjoyments, qual and quant, experienced people get right balance
- recognised that greatest good for the greatest number similar to religious teachings; love thy neighbour and golden rule
- Rule Utilitarianism
- greatest good for community
- general happiness-making rules
- e.g. driving on left hand side of road, even in traffic jam and do not kill/lie
- allow for leisure time
- rule takes priority over immediate situation
- Mill wished to reformulate the theory
- pleasures are not of equal value
- Lower
- physical pleasures, less intellectual not as high an objective
- Lower quality, associated with animal pleasures e.g. eating
- people choose lower who lack character to forgo nearer bodily pleasures over higher one
- Failure to nurture appreciation for higher pleasures, inaccessible, decline into more base gratifications
- Higher
- preferred over lover more quantitative gratification
- better value, only humans can experience e.g. poetry
- "humans faculties more elevated that animal appetites, once conscience of them, they dont regard anything as pleasure that doesnt involve them"
- "Better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied"
- Lower
- self sacrafice is necessary if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number
- "its not the agents own happiness but the greatest amount of happiness altogether"
- concerned that one persons pleasure is completely extinguished if majority gained pleasure from act
- believed well being of individual was important
- pleasures are not of equal value
- happiness best gained by individulas making own choices through rules that were for the common good of all
- Singer
- "an action is wrong if it doesnt satisfy the prefernce of the being involved unless the preference is one of the minority"
- e.g. sharing fruit you have picked, fair and equal distribution, many preferences satisfied, until someone stops...
- all preferences taken into account and count as one
- best consequence= best interest of individual involved
- "an action is wrong if it doesnt satisfy the prefernce of the being involved unless the preference is one of the minority"
- Bentham
- Democratic theory: "Everybody is to count for one, and nobody for more than one"
- rightness or/and wrongness determind by usefulness
- humans motivated by p&p
- moral fact: humans pursued pleasure and sought to avoid pain
- "Nature has placed mankind under two sovereigns; pain and pleasure. they point out what we ought to do and what we shall do"
- Hedonic Calculus
- Remoteness= how near is the p&p?
- Certainty= will the p&p definitely follow?
- Richness= how likely will p&p repeat afterwards?
- Duration= how long it lasts?
- Purity= the chance of opposite sensation occuring
- Extent= no. of people affected by it
- Intensity= how strong p&p is?
- hedonist
- pleasure is chief good
- Pleasure is sole good and pain is sole evil
- Act Utilitarianism
- Flexible as laws and rules can be broken when necessary
- principle of utility directly applied to each situation
- decision is wrong or right depending on the consequences of the action
- Author should recieve max satisfication
- Principle of Utility
- "An action is right if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number"
- "Always act in such a way to Max pleasure and Min pain"
- Mill
- happiness best gained by individulas making own choices through rules that were for the common good of all
- life is best far from pain and rich in enjoyments, qual and quant, experienced people get right balance
- recognised that greatest good for the greatest number similar to religious teachings; love thy neighbour and golden rule
- Rule Utilitarianism
- greatest good for community
- general happiness-making rules
- e.g. driving on left hand side of road, even in traffic jam and do not kill/lie
- allow for leisure time
- rule takes priority over immediate situation
- Mill wished to reformulate the theory
- pleasures are not of equal value
- Lower
- physical pleasures, less intellectual not as high an objective
- Lower quality, associated with animal pleasures e.g. eating
- people choose lower who lack character to forgo nearer bodily pleasures over higher one
- Failure to nurture appreciation for higher pleasures, inaccessible, decline into more base gratifications
- Higher
- preferred over lover more quantitative gratification
- better value, only humans can experience e.g. poetry
- "humans faculties more elevated that animal appetites, once conscience of them, they dont regard anything as pleasure that doesnt involve them"
- "Better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied"
- Lower
- self sacrafice is necessary if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number
- "its not the agents own happiness but the greatest amount of happiness altogether"
- concerned that one persons pleasure is completely extinguished if majority gained pleasure from act
- believed well being of individual was important
- pleasures are not of equal value
- happiness best gained by individulas making own choices through rules that were for the common good of all
- Singer
- "an action is wrong if it doesnt satisfy the prefernce of the being involved unless the preference is one of the minority"
- e.g. sharing fruit you have picked, fair and equal distribution, many preferences satisfied, until someone stops...
- all preferences taken into account and count as one
- best consequence= best interest of individual involved
- "an action is wrong if it doesnt satisfy the prefernce of the being involved unless the preference is one of the minority"
- Bentham
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