Lecture 3 Flashcards
(28 cards)
what is considered when asking the question; What is the good
Hedonistic, pluralistic, and preference consequentialism
who is apart of classical utilitarianism
bentham and possibly mill
what is classical utilitarianism considered
hedonistic consequentialism
is classical utilitarianism a plausible view for many
nope, thats why people endorse a pluralistic consequentialism
why is classical utilitarianism iplausibke
not plausible because it says that knowing the truth (knowledge) is good even when it hurts you, and people dont agree with this
what is an argument in favour of pluralistic consequentialism
Nozick’s experience machine
what is Nozick’s experience machine
Imagine we are plugged to a machine; during this we believe we are having great experiences (we are with friends, enjoying friends, winning Nobel prize and enjoying it…. just gives us great experiences would you want to be connected to it? Many people say no because they want REAL experiences, REAL friendships, etcThis means that friendship has value and it isn’t just the value of the pleasure that it provides. This means that other things have intrinsic value as well.
what is the problem with the pluralistic approach
calculation is extremely hard and maybe impossible:
have to consider the consequences and decide which is better…. e.g. having to choose between knowledge and freedom and it isn’t clear how to compare these things. This means that this view is quite unuseful for ethics.
to avoid the issue and to respond at the same time to Nozick’s argument, some endorse what
preference utilitarianism
what is the goal of preference utilitarianism
the good is the satisfaction of preferences;
one intrinsice value; satisfaction of preference
desire to win nobel prize; but what exatly re you desiring? just winning the nobel prize (the action) or for it to actually happen in the real world…. you desire the state of the affair
what are problems with preference utilitarianism
Problems with this view; if you have an immoral desire, or an ill-informed desire (e.g. desire to torture someone)— according to the view, if the desire is satisfied then there is something good about it. Maybe it is good for the person doing it, but is is not overall good. Some people say that we can just exclude immoral desires.
Ill-informed desires— there is a desire to drink from a glass of something on the table (thinks it is beer or something). I drink it, but it is actually acid and I have been misinformed… but according to the theory it is good that I drank the acid, but really it is not good that I drank the acid.
what is Hedonist
a value theory
says that there is just one intrinsic good; pleasure
is mill a hedonist
unclear, but if he were for sure;
he would have to say that more pleasure=more value; if you have more bodily pleasure, you have more value… but he doesn’t say this. he said that a small mental pleasure is better than a greater amount of bodily pleasure
but instead he talks about different values of pleasures
what does mill say
Mill talks about Parts of Happiness;
aka the ingredients of happiness
give an example of what mill says about Parts of Happiness;
the reason we want money is to get other things (food, house, etc)
at some point though, we desire money for its self (not for anything else)… money becomes part of happiness/an ingredient of happiness
is bentham a hedonist
yep
what are the types of consequences
Actual, foreseen, foreseeable, intended, and likely consequences
what consequences did bentham and mill focus on
actual consequences
what is the problem with the view of focusing on just the actual consequences
problem with the view
thought experiment: the case of the runway teenager:
ur at the bus stop, meet/see a teenager that ran away from home… you think the right thing to do is buy ticket for her and send her back home however there is a bus accident and she dies
according to Bentham and mill what you did was wrong because the actual consequence is bad, but this is ridiculous
the consequences in this situation was not forseen, forseeable, intended or likely.
classical utilitarians focus on what
actual consequences
to avoid the problem of actual consequences we could focus on what
foreseen, foreseeable, intended or likely consequences
give the thought experiment of bob and the rot not he hamburger
bob is feeding his kid, there is a rotting on the hamburger but he didn’t see it so he thinks the best thing to do is feed the kid the burger, according to Bentham and mill what he did was bad, but some people would say that we have too focus on forseen consequences and therefore he is not wrong because he didn’t see the rot on the hamburger act
hat are the 2 types of ‘What’ consequences
act and rule
these are types of utilitarian consequences
classical utilitarianism (bentham and mill) is a type of what consequentialism
act consequentialism
