Utilitarianism Exam Questions

1) define utility calculus: a criteria used to calculate pleasure/gained from a given action by giving it a numerical value
2) link to utilitarianism: an ethical theory arguing that the morally right thing to do is that which brings the greatest happiness/least pain to the most amount of people
3a) pain/pleasure for person directly affected: intensity, duration, certainty, remoteness/propinquity
3b) effects on pleasure/pain: fecundity (producing other pleasures/pain), purity (tendency of each to reproduce only itself)
3c) impact on other individuals: extent (amount of people affected)

• moral theory stating that the right action is that which increases general pleasure > individual pleasure
• key thinker: Bentham

1) we seek specific actions/activities/objects > seeking pleasure i.e seeking a book > seeking pleasure from a book

2) we seek specific states of affairs in the world > seeking pleasure from those states i.e seeking a stateless society > seeking pleasure from stateless societies

3) pleasure is a way of talking about behaviour or what we want

1) Impossible to compare pleasures

• Between actions – there is no common currency to compare different types of pleasures
• Between people – the hedonic calculus is meaningless because we cannot ever know who derives more pleasure from one action to another
  2) Quality versus quantity of the pleasure
• Some philosophers argue that some pleasures are greater than others, such as JS Mill who say that pleasures of the mind are better than those of the body
  RESPONSE
• Bentham argues that only quantity matters since all pleasures are equal
  3) Consequentialism
• Utilitarianism is a teleological ethical theory which determines whether something is morally good based upon the consequences. It is considered to be counterintuitive since it values pleasure over what seems to be morally right and the intentions held
  4) Encouragement of bad behaviour
• Because utilitarianism views an ethically good decision as one that gives the greatest pleasure, it encourages bad behaviour such as binge drinking because it gives plenty of pleasure to the person drinking

5) Social engineering

• If governments were to use utilitarianism to make laws that would maximise general happiness, human autonomy and freedom could be diminished

6) Impossible to follow

• It is impossible to calculate pleasure
• It would take a long time to calculate pleasure for every single ethical decision
• Happiness can be involved in spontaneity in which the hedonic calculus isn’t used