1. Doug Boll Amy Murtha Cass Stahmann Tuesday, 5:30 Ethical Theories Presentation October 27, 2009

2.  The greatest good for the greatest number of people.  Examples  Building a dam  Finish your degree  Assisted suicide

3.  He believed that we should try to increase the overall happiness and pleasure in the world.  Good equals pleasure.  He called it “the Principle of Utility”

4.  Bentham’s godson  He inherited the utilitarian project from Bentham and from his father James Mill.  He gave the theory his own characteristic twists and developments.

6.  Act: likely consequences of potential actions.  Rule: potential rules of action.

7.  How humans react psychologically.

8.  Use instinctive moral thinking  Varies from rule Utilitarianism

9.  Least amount of harm or “evil”

10.  Average: average happiness  Total: Utility of population

11. Nation healthcare reform

13.  Responsibility for choices.  Sometimes we can’t foresee the impact of others.  Example  Terrorist situation

14.  Implies we should always maximize happiness.  May be too strict of a requirement.  Example  Good intentions

15.  Who all is included in one decision  Examples  Those in our own group  In our own country  All human beings.  All sentient beings.

16.  Calculating takes time.  In the real world we don’t have time to calculate the effects of our actions on general happiness.

18. What are the main arguments in defense of or against Utilitarianism?

19. What is the difference between maximizing total happiness vs. average happiness?

20. Who were the “Fathers” of Utilitarianism?

21. What are two of the different types of Utilitarianism?

22.  A 21 st Century Ethical Toolbox, second edition. By Anthony Weston  http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ball0888/oxfordopen/mill.html  http://www.codepoet.org/~markw/gurps/adv/bedlam/b edlam_in_london.html  http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/Utilitariani sm%20notes.htm  http://philosophy.wisc.edu/hausman/341/dq/dq- utilitarianism.htm  http://ethics.sandiego.edu/theories/Utilitarianism/index.a sp  http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/utilitarianism/types- of-utilitarianism.html