UTILITARIANISM (1)
What is the basis for morality? Pleasure and pain
Bentham version
How should we understand these to promote the greatest pleasure
concepts? for the greatest number of people,
in order to act morally
What is the basic structure of 1. Consequentialist/Teleological
Bentham’s Utilitarianism? 2. Relativist (vs. absolutism)
3. Maximising (greatest number)
4. Impartial (equal consideration)
UTILITARIANISM (2)
What is the basis for morality? The desire for happiness, not just
J.S. Mill version. pleasure.
Individual happiness is desirable,
thus > general happiness is desirable
x,y,z is good insofar as it brings
about happiness
What is the a. higher pleasures are worth more than lower pleasures.
difference
between b. higher pleasures are those pleasures of the intellect brought about via activities
Bentham vs like poetry, reading or attending the theatre
Mill?
c. lower pleasures are animalistic and base; pleasures associated with drinking beer,
Ans: quality of having sex or lazing on a sun-lounger.
pleasure
UTILITARIANISM (3)
ACT utilitarianism – (Bentham) RULE utilitarianism – (J.S. Mill)
An act utilitarian focuses only on The view is that we should create a
the consequences of individual set of rules that, if followed, would
actions when making moral produce the greatest amount of
judgments. total happiness.
Imagine a case where a doctor had five patients requiring new organs to
stop their death and one healthy patient undergoing a routine check. In
this case, it would seem that total pleasure is best promoted by killing
the one healthy patient, harvesting his organs and saving the other five
lives; their pleasure outweighs the cost to the formerly healthy patient.
KANTIAN ETHICS
Deontological (duty-based) It focuses on our duties rather than our
ends/goals/consequences
What is duty? There are things we recognise as being
required of us irrespective of what we
(really) desire to do.
The good will If it is not desires that move us to do what
a) Ex: giving to a beggar out of sympathy is right (even really strong desires), what
CLASSICAL LITERATURE
vs giving out of one’s sense of duty. does? Kant’s answer is “the good will”.
b) Good without qualification
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KANTIAN ETHICS
What is the basis for morality? Pure practical reason
How do we know an act is moral? It is consistent with the Categorical
Imperative
An imperative is just a command. “Clean
your room!” is an imperative (but
Nota Bene: hypothetical)
Moral “oughts” — for example, “you
CLASSICAL LITERATURE
ought not lie” — are categorical.They If a command is categorical then people
apply to people irrespective of how they ought to follow it irrespective of how they
feel about them. feel about following it, irrespective of
what consequences might follow, or who
may or may not have told them to follow 5
KANT: THE MORAL LAW
CATEGORICAL :… act only according to that maxim through which you can at
IMPERATIVE the same time will that it become a universal law [without
FORMULATION 1 contradiction]
Universality
CATEGORICAL So act that you use humanity, in your own person as well as in
IMPERATIVE the person of any other, always at the same time as an end,
FORMULATION 1I never merely as a means
Humanity
[human rights and dignity]
CATEGORICAL … every rational being must so act as if he were through his
IMPERATIVE maxim always a lawmaking member in the universal kingdom of
FORMULATION 1II ends
Kingdom of Ends
ARISTOTLE’S VIRTUE ETHICS
What is the basis for morality? (see below) THINGS TO NOTE:
How do we know when an action is
P1: All objects have a telos (purpose) good?
P2: The fulfillment of an objects telos is good Ans: Is this action what a virtuous
person would do in this situation?
P3:The telos of the human being is to reason
C:The good for the human being is to act in accordance with
reason.
Aristotelian Virtue Ethics: an agent-
centered moral theory rather than
CLASSICAL LITERATURE
Why should we fulfil our function? an act-centered moral theory.
Answer: Eudaimonia – human flourishing (the good life)
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EX:
What is All of us, at one time or another, experience feelings of
anger. For example, I may become angry when my step-
virtue? son thoughtlessly eats through the remaining crisps
without saving any for others, or he may feel anger
when he has to wait an extra minute or two to be
picked up at work because his stepfather is juggling
Aristotle refers to virtues as twenty-six different tasks and momentarily loses track
character traits or psychological of time.
dispositions. Virtues are those
particular dispositions that are
appropriately related to the Aristotle, “Anyone can become angry — that is easy. But
situation and, to link back to our to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at
function, encourage actions that the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way
are in accordance with reason. — that is not easy”
Virtue as the
Golden Mean
For Aristotle, virtue is not a
feeling itself but an appropriate
psychological disposition in
response to that feeling; the
proper response. The correct
response to a feeling is described
as acting on the basis of the
Golden Mean, a response that is
neither excessive nor deficient.
DEVELOPING VIRTUES: Practical Wisdom
Cultivating a virtuous
(phronesis)
character is something that
happens by practice.
Aristotle compares the It is by developing our skill of practical wisdom
development of the skill of that we become better at ascertaining what
virtue to the development exactly courage or generosity amounts to in a
of other skills. specific situation and how exactly we might
achieve it.
Repetition.
By developing the skill of practical wisdom, we
can properly put our virtuous character traits
into practice.
