On your whiteboard: What is the principle of utility?

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Presentation transcript:

On your whiteboard: What is the principle of utility? How does an act utilitarian make moral decisions? What is the hedonic calculus?

1. The Principle of Utility: The right action is the one that results in the greatest good (most pleasure/ happiness) for the greatest number.

2. The Hedonic Calculus: D R I C E P S Duration Remoteness Intensity Certainty Extent Purity Succession

3. How does an act utilitarian make moral decisions?

Today’s Key Questions: What are the weaknesses of Act Utilitarianism? What are its strengths? Could start to think about which one outweighs the other.

On your tables… Is this an easy way of making moral decisions? What makes this process difficult? (list the problems on a whiteboard)

In your notes… Knowledge of the future -Unforeseen consequences Knowledge of other people’s pleasure/pain -Mind-reading required Even if we could do these things, we couldn’t do them infinitely -consequences of consequences of consequences…

We have seen the problems in using act utilitarianism to make decisions – it’s impossible to actually reach a decision. But, let’s assume for now that it does work. Does it give us the right sort of answer? Is the action it recommends always the morally right one?

A problem for Bentham – in story form!

“The ones who walk away from Omelas” by Ursula LeGuin Briefly summarise the situation in the story. What would Bentham think about this situation, and why? Do you agree with Bentham? Why/ why not? This story highlights a possible problem with Bentham’s ethical theory. What is it?

Bernard Williams’ criticism Since it only cares about consequences of actions, utilitarianism doesn’t care about how the act was brought about. So there‘s no distinction between, say 1. Agent X doing an act Y because X freely wanted to do Y 2. Agent Z forcing X to do Y, since X didn’t want to do Y 3. Agent X accidentally doing Y And there shouldn‘t be a distinction between them, because all the utilitarian cares about is ‘does Y bring about the greatest happiness overall, or not? ‘ So it’s not important whether X wanted to do Y, did Y on purpose, did Y because he/she was forced to do so, etc. All that matters are the consequences of doing Y.

More problems for Act Utilitarianism… Abuse of minorities Overlooks justice Overlooks duties/ promises Overlooks relationships Overlooks rights/ individual liberty

So… Having seen some of the problems with utilitarianism, can you think of any reasons why people today are still utilitarian? (there are some!!) What are the attractions of the theory?

Today’s Key Questions: What are the weaknesses of Act Utilitarianism? What are its strengths? Could start to think about which one outweighs the other.

Pub Quiz: (You need one answer paper for your table) Who came up with utilitarianism? What is the P for in the hedonic calculus? Define hedonism Who criticised hedonism? Utilitarianism is teleological. What is the opposite? What is the S for in the hedonic calculus?