Order 1663739: A Sinking Cry for Help
1.5 Is Happiness the Standard of Morality?
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Utilitarianism (Social Hedonism)
- An action is right if and only if it promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
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Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
- English philosopher
- The founder of utilitarianism
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The Process of Making Moral Decisions
Consider the various courses of action open to you.
Taking into account all the persons affected, and counting yourself as only one of them, calculate the pleasures and pains involved.
Choose the course of action that will result in the greatest balance of pleasure over pain.
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Hedonic Calculus
- How do we measure a pleasure? We must take into account its –
- Intensity, Duration, Certainty, Propinquity, Fecundity, Purity, Extent
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Comparing Two Actions
| Parameters | Drinking | Reading |
| Intensity | 20 | 10 |
| Duration | 20 | 30 |
| Certainty | 15 | 0 |
| Propinquity | 20 | 10 |
| Fecundity | 0 | 25 |
| Purity | -15 | 10 |
| Total: | 60 | 85 |
Comparing Two Actions When Two Persons Involved
| Going to a movie | Visiting Grandma | |
| You | 10 | -5 |
| Grandma | -20 | +25 |
| Total | -10 | 20 |
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John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
- Mill writes, “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.”
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“Utilitarianism”
- The nature of moral theories is to explain why actions are right or wrong.
- Utilitarianism explains well.
- There are cases that “rule theories” cannot explain.
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Kant’s Moral Theory
- Kant is a formalist who believes that morality is a matter of ought or obligation and that the consequences of one’s actions have nothing to do with their rightness or wrongness.
Good Will
- A good will is an intention to act in accordance with moral law.
- The good will denotes the willingness to do the right thing from the right motive.
In Accordance With Duty and Out of Duty
- We may do something that just happens to accord with what our duty is, but this would hardly make the action moral. In order to be really moral, our action must be done out of duty, that is, to do X because it is right to do X, and for no other reason.
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Two Types of Imperatives
Hypothetical imperative: commands X for the sake of achieving Y .
Categorical imperative: commands X because it is intrinsically right.
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Categorical Imperative
Kant: "Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”
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Test of Moral Actions
- Does the universalization of the principle of one's action result in a contradiction (defeating one’s purpose)? If so, the action must be judged to be immoral.
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“The Principle of Morality”
- Two kinds of motivation:
* Inclination or Consequence vs. Principle
- The capacity to live according to principles distinguishes us from animals.
- Moral heroes and moral villains.
- What principles to follow?