Utilitarianism Flashcards
Is it possible to measure good or pleasure then reach a moral decision?
Yes:
- Bentham: organised criteria for hedonic calculus
- Bentham: humans are programmed to seek pleasure and pain
- Mill: higher and lower pleasures
No:
- good and pleasure are subjective
- pleasure is dangerous, may become selfish
- no obvious units of pleasure
- how should higher and lower pleasures be weighted?
- Nozick’s experience machine
“Does utilitarianism provide a helpful way of decision making?” essay
A: issues with the unit of pleasure and how to measure it - hedonic calculus. Time, units, have to guess the consequence
CA: we can use past experiences to roughly guess the outcomes. posteriori knowledge. We can observe happiness in the world
E: Nozicks experience machine. Pleasure is not the ultimate thing we aim for in life.
A: consequentialist - tyranny of the majority, can allow morally bad actions
CA: rule util - Mill, weak rule can create rules based on what we know is right and wrong. Rules can be changed as society changes
E: incoherent as weak rule util basically becomes act util J.J.C Smart as more and more exceptions are allowed so can still allow bad actions
Utilitarianism scholars & arguments
Bentham: uses the principle of utility. Do whatever leads to the greatest good. Hedonic calculus.
Mill: calls act util a ‘Swine ethic’ “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied, than a pig satisfied.
Bernard Williams: no moral theory ought to demand the taking of another life. Example of Jim and the Indians
_Mackie&Hobbes_doubts the principle of utility as humans are selfish and brutish
MacIntyre act may justify actions
Nozick: experience machine and utility monster
McCloskey the sheriff analogy too demonstrate how it would justify unjust actions
Evaluation of util
Consequentialist
1. Too demanding: Bernard Williams
2. Cannot predict the future
3. Trolley problem
Act Utilitarianism
1. Swine ethic (Mill)
2. Nozick’s experience machine: wouldn’t want to live in just a happy world. Have to have pain in order to have pleasure
3. Nozick’s utility monster: monster gets more pleasure for burning you alive than your pain. So you should let it happen
4. Tyranny of the majority
5. MacIntyre: act may justify bad actions
6. Mackie doubts that the principle of utility would work as humans are selfish
Hedonic calculus
1. Takes too long
2. McCloskey problem: issue with injustice
Higher and lower pleasures
1. Elitist “competent judges”
2. Can simply disagree about which is which
Rule Util - Strong/weak
1. Smart: weak rule descents into act
2. Vary: Rule UT is attractive: solves problem of minorities being discounted
Utilitarianism
Bentham
- A relativist, teleological theory that suggests that human beings are motivated by pleasure and pain
- Bentham believes that human beings are motivated by pleasure and pain and we can observe this in the world. This presents the rule that we should do whatever leads us to the greatest balance of good over evil. The thing that maximises pleasure and minimises pain - this is the utility principle
- _Bentham established the hedonic calculus which is a way of calculating the overall pleasure and pain of an action - we should consider long term consequences
Mill
- A common objection to utilitarianism is that it is a swine ethic - an ethic that treats us as pigs, creatures which value pleasure identically. It can also permit acts of unnecessary violence where the pleasure of he attacker outweighs the pain of the victim.
- Mill distinguishes higher and lower pleasures: Higher pleasures: intellectual and social pleasures that only human beings can enjoy. Lower pleasures - the pleasures of the body which both humans and other lower creatures can enjoy.
- Higher pleasures are more important. Therefore the attacker cannot be in the right as the attacker is experiencing a lower pleasure that can never outweigh the pain of the victim caused.
- Bentham may allow tyranny of the majority.
Act Util:
- aims to produce the bet balance of good over evil in each case. It takes situations on a cae by case basis. Bentham hedonic calculus is an example of this approach.
Rule Util:
- also aims to produce the best balance of good over evil but it has the common good of society as a starting point. We can notice that stealing leads to more pain than pleasure so from this we can make a rule ‘stealing is wrong’. The rules are not fixed so whatever brings around the most happiness , the rules can be changed by society.
Strong and Weak rule util:
- Strong util: once we have decided the rules, they are fixed and cannot under any circumstances by broken
- Weak util: may make allowances to break rules in exceptional occasions
- McCloskey problem: in favour of rule utilitarianism - a sheriff arresting an innocent man for the greater good would be allowed in act util but this would not be justified as a rule utilitarian. Therefore upholds justice and goodness.
Measuring pleasure:
- Mill argues that we can observe what people desire and thus presumes that we can have some sort of measure of whether they are achieving their desires. Therefore we may have some measure of pleasure and pain.
Preference utilitarianism:
- Peter Singer: recognises hat different people have different views about happiness and that we have different aims in life. Argues that we should be allowed to peruse our preferences as long as this doesn’t interfere with anyone else’s pursuit of pleasure
- tells us to imagine ourselves as ‘impartial observers’
- worked with animal rights - they cannot communicate their preferences so we must be impartial observers
- this may be easier to measure as you are not restricted on what the majority deems to bring about happiness - avoids tyranny of the majority as a result.
Nozick’s experiment machine:
- if we were consider the possibility of scientists creating a machine that would give you ever possible pleasurable sensation without having any rea life experiences mos of us would decline
- shows that pleasure may not be the ultimate thing
