1. Philosophy 2030
Class #10
4/12/16
Take-home / open book midterm
exam will be available on Quia for
download and printing tomorrow
morning by noon. Exam is due
on 4/19. Use the answer sheets
handed out.

2. Extra credit opportunity:
Visit the Zen Buddhist  temple at 10 AM on April 14th.  
Nebraska Zen Center 3625 Lafayette Ave. Omaha, NE 68131

3. Question for Your Class Essay/Story:
Which is a worse thing to happen to you?
a. You inflict physical harm on another person.
b. You have physical harm inflicted upon you.
What would an Egoist say? What would Plato
say?

4. Philosophy 2030 Class Essay/Story
Length 5-7 pages. 20% of your grade. Due: 5/12/2016
You have 3 options on Form:
1) Argumentative Essay. Compose an argument for your view on this issue using the principles of critical reasoning we have discussed in class.
2) Write a fictionalized short story that creates characters and a narrative that provides insight and empathy on this issue.
(e.g.
3) Write a non-fiction Memoir Essay with incidents of your life pertinent to this issue. If you wish, you may “embellish the story” with imaginative “twists and turns” that provide insight to your own narrative.

5. Video –
Ethics:
What is Right?
(Section II starts at 13:44)

6. Chapter Five: Utilitarianism
The morality of an act
depends on
whether it has good consequences. Intentions
are irrelevant to whether or
not an act is right!

7. Utilitarianism
Note that Utilitarians generally are arguing a normative claim. A utilitarian may accept the view that we often act from psychological egoism, but would say that when we do so, we may be acting unethically.
Note that Utilitarians are hard universalists.
The principle of utility is sometimes referred to as the greatest happiness principle.
Utilitarianism is similar to but should be distinguished from the view held by Machiavelli that the means justifies the ends which may promote an Egoist objective. Utilitarianism does always advance the common good.

8. Jeremy Bentham
(1748 – 1832)
Bentham is promoting a rationalist program, that is he is arguing that to determine proper conduct we must reason to evaluate the consequences of our conduct
When choosing a course of action, always pick the
one that maximizes happiness (pleasure) and minimizes unhappiness (pain) for the maximum number of people
Thus, Bentham’s view is a classic statement of a liberal political philosophy. Besides doing philosophy for its own sake, he was a passionate reformer for child labor laws and other social causes, including animal rights.
Bentham insisted that each individual must decide
for themselves what provides pleasure and each person’s pleasure counts equally.

9. Hedonistic Utilitarianism
Bentham is suggesting that what is good is
that which is pleasurable and what is bad is
what is painful.
Thus, his view is known as hedonistic utilitarianism.
However, please note that this classic view of utility does understand that pursuing short-term pleasure may actually be a bad thing. But the reason is because exercising immediate and short-term pleasures may not be a rational approach for achieving maximum pleasure for all (or even for oneself)
Bentham’s view distinguishes intrinsic pleasure
from instrumental pleasure.

10. The Hedonistic Calculus
Bentham attempts to provide a practical guideline for our choice of conduct.
He proposes a quantitative analysis of possible actions and their consequences, in terms of:
intensity of the pleasure
duration of the pleasure
the certainly or uncertainty of the pleasure
remoteness: how far away is it?
fecundity (likelihood of being followed by more of the same)
purity (likelihood of not being followed by the opposite)
extent (how many people will be affected?)
He suggests that we assign numeric values to each of these elements and then calculate mathematically what is the best action to take.

11. & The Problem of Sheer Numbers!
If we are applying the greatest happiness principle,
would it be moral then to abuse a few individuals for
the enjoyment or welfare of the many?
Human experiments?
Animal experiments?
Stem cell research?
Snuff films?
Dog fights?
Human Torture? Abu Ghraib?

12. Or The Hedonist Paradox
The Happiness Paradox,
Or The Hedonist Paradox
We often found happiness only when we are searching for something else. The more we seem to value pleasure for itself, the more it seems to elude us.
Remember what Aristotle said….
In response to Bentham, John Stuart Mill takes a page from Aristotle’s playbook and claims that happiness is an intellectual achievement, not merely pleasure.
(By the way, if you were wondering who was the first philosopher to stress the important difference between factual and normative statements and that one cannot think critically about ethics without keeping this difference clear, it was John Stuart Mill. -- Reread Box 5.7)