Transcript 252510utilitarianism_000

PHIL 2525
Contemporary Moral Issues
Lec 10
Utilitarianism
Lifeboat Ethics...
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Garret Hardin maintains that
we have a duty to not help
the poor and starving of other
countries...
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Rich nations are
like lifeboats.
The poor are
like the drowning
people in the
water.
If we let them
into our lifeboat,
we will all die.
Garrett Hardin:
Freedom of the Commons
and Resource Allocation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8gAMFTAt2M
Evaluating Lifeboat Ethics...
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Are rich nations like
lifeboats?
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Where did the lifeboats
come from?
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Why aren’t there enough
lifeboats?
Chapter 6 Epigraph
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...sententious Christian doctrine
that “the end does not justify
the means.”
We have to ask now, “If the
end doesn’t justify the means,
what does?” The answer is,
obviously, “Nothing!”
th
18
Century upheavals…
David Hume
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suggested that we are
somehow hard-wired
to approve of things
that help not only
ourselves, but also
society…
JEREMY BENTHAM, 1748-1832
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Reading Hume
made him feel as
though “scales
had fallen from
my eyes.”
Jeremy
Bentham
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Morality is about
making the
world as happy
as possible
Jeremy Bentham
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“Nature has placed
mankind under the
governance of two
sovereign masters:
pain and pleasure.
Why was Utilitarianism Revolutionary?
Why was Utilitarianism revolutionary?
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Because it dispensed with God or
the Hereafter as a moral marker....
Jeremy Bentham
 “The
greatest good
for the greatest
number”
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the “Hedonic
Calculus” as a
standard for judging
laws and social
institutions
The Utilitarian
Calculus
Criteria for measuring
pleasure and pain:
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Intensity
Duration
Certainty (or uncertainty)
Nearness (or farness)
Extent
Social Reform...
 Government
has
no place in the
bedrooms of the
nation….
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The sole factor to be
considered …. is the
balance of social good vs.
social evil.
Moral intuitions, social
traditions or God’s wishes
are not relevant.
Bentham advanced the principle of utility
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Advocated “the greatest
happiness of the greatest
number”
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Suggested the “Hedonic
Calculus” as a standard
for judging laws and
social institutions.
J. S. Mill 1806-1873
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Not merely the quantity
of pleasure, but the
quality of happiness had
to be calculated.
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Some pleasures are better
than others…
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"Better to be a human being dissatisfied
than a pig satisfied.
Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a
fool satisfied.”
John Stuart Mill
J. S. Mill 1806-1873
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“Actions are right in
proportion as they tend to
promote happiness;
wrong as they tend to
produce the reverse of
happiness.”
Lifeboat situations...
Utilitarian Beliefs:
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Moral rules are merely rules of thumb
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The point is to achieve the greatest good for the
greatest number
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Utilitarianism is a Consequentialist Theory
Matthew
Donnelly and
his right to die...
Utilitarianism and
non-human
animals…
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The question is not
whether they can talk
or reason .....
..... but whether they
can suffer.
The Meatrix...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEkc70ztOrc
Jeremy
Bentham
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The time will come
when humanity will
extend its mantle
over everything
which breathes... "
Midterm sneak peek....
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Pages 1 to 99
Lectures, text and readings
Short answer and multiple choice (40 marks)
Ten essay questions (60 marks)
I will choose six
 You will choose three
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