Philosophy essay

1. Social Hedonism

1. Modern Utilitarianism was developed in response to the Industrial Revolution which ran in Britain from 1780 to 1835.

1. Hordes of workers sought jobs in mill towns and cities creating large slums.

1. Workers competed for jobs that were often repetitious, dangerous, and poorly paid.

1. Conditions in cities consisted of overcrowding of the workers. e.g. seven people trying to sleep in one bed.

1. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834, Anglican Minister and economist that specialized in overpopulation.)

1. Malthus feared overpopulation and under production of food.

1. He said that population increased geometrically but food production only increased arithmetically.

1. Raising wages would only encourage the poor to marry younger and have even more children.

1. The population would outgrow the food supply and poverty would return.

1. Welfare programs would only encourage increased idleness and large families with population outgrowing the food supply.

1. The only way to avoid the harsh results of natural cures to overpopulation such as famine, disease, war and rebellion was to stop helping the poor and remove all restraints on the free enterprise system.

1. The law of supply and demand would make it more difficult for the poor to marry early and having more children thereby stopping the geometric rise of population.

1. This theory enabled businessman to justify keeping wages low by saying it was their duty.

1. Malthus’ principles blamed the terrible conditions the poor lived under on the poor themselves.

1. Philosophy and Social Reform

1. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

1. Bentham blasted those in power for pursuing their own narrow, socially destructive goals instead of pursing happiness for everyone.

1. Bentham’s solution to society’s problems was to establish democratic rule by the whole people rather than by a select class. The workers outnumbered the bosses and, therefore, through democracy could have their demands met.

1. To Bentham the only justification for government, since the bureaucrats rather than the people themselves ran the government, was to use the government to prevent worse evils.

1. For Bentham the legitimate functions of the government were social reform and establishing the conditions most conductive to promoting the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

1. Many 19th century philosophers viewed metaphysics as irrelevant, meaningless and unverifiable.

1. Philosophers’ interests shifted from shifted from the search for transcendental truth of systematic coherence to practical remedies for the pressing problems of society.

1. Philosopher felt no longer obliged to produce elaborate theories or systems since they thought even their own theories were culturally limited.

1. Growing belief in evolution resulted in efforts to identify an evolutionary view of ideas rather than a search for a static truth.

1. These philosphers explored social and political philosophy and the application of science to the immediate problems of human happiness.

1. Their secular fact oriented approach revived interest in cultural relativity.

1. Particular strategies and factual information were thought to be reliable if they were scientific and objective.

1. They believed that the application of scientific methods of inquiry could identify and eliminate poverty, crime and ignorance.

1. If the Enlightenment was the age of reason the nineteenth century was the age of reform.

1. The Principle of Utility

1. Due to his interest in science Bentham attempted to base his philosophy on careful observation of social conditions and actual human behavior.

1. Bentham declared that actual observation of human behavior made it crystal clear that pain and pleasure shape all human activity. He came up with two types of hedonism.

1. Psychological hedonism – belief that all decisions are based on pleasure and pain because it is psychologically impossible for humans to do otherwise. We do seek pleasure and avoid pain.

1. Ethical hedonism – belief that although it is possible deliberately avoid pleasure and chose pain it is wrong to do so. We ought to pursue pleasure and avoid pain.

1. Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure.

1. Utility – can refer to how well a thing performs a certain function or is pleasure producing and pain avoiding. Bentham uses it for the latter.

1. Principle of Utility – act always to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

1. The principle of utility revolutionized the concept of hedonism since it transformed personal hedonism into a potent social and ethical philosophy that Bentham could use to reform society.

1. Hedonic Calculus

1. Bentham tried to base his philosophy on observations of actual conditions and he tried to derive principles of behavior from facts.

1. Hedonic calculus – positive units of pleasure and negative units of pain are attached to Bentham’s seven elements (intensity, duration, extent, etc.) and if the units of pleasure are greater we should perform the contemplated action.

1. Bentham believed that each of us already uses the hedonic calculus on an intuitive level.

1. The Egoistic Foundation of Social Concern

1. Psychological egoism – we are always interested chiefly in our own welfare whether we admit it or not.

1. We care about other people based on how it affects our own happiness.

1. Reason is simply a tool that helps us determine whether our actions will result in more pleasure or more pain.

1. Bentham believed that if people could be shown how a better society for others would result in less pain and more pleasure for them, genuine social reform would occur. e.g. Senior citizens usually don’t want to pay property taxes because property taxes are used for the schools and they no longer have children in school. However, if they can be shown that paying property taxes results in better schools, which means that when that child grows up he or she is less likely to turn to crime or be on public assistance, they wouldn’t mind paying property taxes because they would see how it would benefit them.

1. Laws should not only be fair and effective but also designed to motivate people to consider other’s welfare as well as their own.

1. Hedonistic reasoning remains potentially destructive because whatever sense of community it creates is based on selfish concerns rather than compassion of empathy.

1. The Question is Can They Suffer?

1. Bentham extended the ethical reach of the pleasure principle beyond the human community to include creatures with the capacity to suffer.

1. Some philosophers didn’t think humans had an ethical duty to treat animals well because those philosophers believed that animals couldn’t reason or couldn’t speak.

1. Kant believed that humans didn’t have a moral duty to treat animals well because he didn’t think they could reason. However, he didn’t think we should be cruel to animals because it would make it more likely that we would be cruel to humans.

1. As far as Bentham was concerned suffering places moral claims on us whether or not the subject of suffering can reason or speak.

1. Bentham rejected the notion that animals lacked moral worth simply because they cannot reason. He compared it to racist thinking whereby no moral duty was owed to blacks due to their alleged inferiority.

1. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

1. After becoming a follower of Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill’s father came to believe that all minds are the same at birth and proper education would produce a healthy, rational child.

1. Bentham and James Mill decided to raise little John Stuart according to the principles of Utilitarianism to show how effective a philosophy it was.

1. In an effort to refine John Stuart Mills’ thinking his father forced him to try to learn everything for himself before his father would even consider explaining it.

1. The strictness of Mills education caused him to have a nervous breakdown, however, he recovered by studying music and Romantic poetry.

1. Redemption and Balance – Mill married Harriet Taylor who helped him to apply his philosophy to the workings of human society.

1. High Pleasure

1. To Bentham the difference between two pleasures was merely the intensity of the pleasures. e.g. if a game of pin the tail on the donkey brings more intense pleasure that the arts and sciences the game of pin the tail on the donkey is more valuable.

1. Mill, who overcame depression by studying art and music, introduced the notion of quality to pleasures. He believed that pleasures such as art and music were of a higher quality than the pleasure that came from pin the tail on the donkey.

1. Mill said that human beings who have access to activities that employ their higher faculties will always participate in those activities rather than the ones that employ their lower faculties. e.g. I may love the developmentally disabled but we don’t’ wish to join them.

1. Mill said that they way to determine if one pleasure was superior (higher) than another was if there was a consensus among people that were fully acquainted with both pleasures that the pleasure was superior to the other.

1. Not everyone agrees that the higher faculties are superior. Many people live their lives as if their values regarding pleasures are just the opposite from Mill’s in that they are not devoted to using their higher faculties.

1. Low Pleasures

1. Mills said that here was no inconsistency in appreciating the superiority of a higher pleasure and succumbing to the temptation of more easily secured lesser pleasures.

1. Mill said that people may indulge in lower pleasures rather than higher pleasures because they may not have the time or opportunity to participate in the high pleasures.

1. Also, even though a person may start out by being capable of participating in the higher pleasures, by not participating they may lose that ability.

1. Our environment also may prevent us from participating in the higher pleasures.

1. Altruism and Happiness

1. Having added the notion of quality to utilitarianism, Mill expands Bentham’s appeal to enlightened self-interest into and full-fledged altruistic social philosophy.

1. Mill says that ultimately utilitarianism rests on the desire to be in unity with our fellow creatures.

1. Altruism – to promote the welfare of others.

1. According to Mills’ altruistic utilitarianism no one’s self-interest is more important than any other’s self-interest.

1. Mill wanted to show that as civilization advances the social spirit grows.

1. In this effort he made an eloquent defense of the importance of universal education to the general happiness.

1. For Mill, the function of education was to instill the knowledge necessary for the individual to live well and to create healthy, altruistic citizens.

1. To Mill, to create healthy, altruistic citizens education must become a lifelong activity.

1. After selfishness the cause of the inability to be happy is lack of mental cultivation.

1. Mill was convinced that science and utilitarian thinking could produce a better environment.

1. Utilitarian Social Logic

1. An excellent example of enlightened utilitarian reasoning can be found in the practice of busing children to a school in another neighborhood to achieve school desegregation. This practice gained controversy during the civil rights movement of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.

1. The textbook gives another example of how people could achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people by pursuing their self-interest by using this example of the bussing. The example goes like this: Busing the children of more influential families to inferior schools will cause the more influential families to make those schools better by using their greater influence to do so. This makes things better for the children stuck in inferior schools too. This is an example of using motives of self-interest to help the larger society.

1. Happiness and Mere Contentment

1. Mill was not content with just modifying behavior. He also wanted to reform character. In this regard he distinguished between happiness and what he called mere contentment.

1. He said that mere contentment consisted of enjoying the lower pleasures.

1. Mill wanted to make as many people happy as possible, not as many people content as possible.

1. Mill argued that the principle cause of unhappiness was selfishness.

1. He believed that happiness requires a balance between tranquility and excitement and selfishness robs us of both.

1. Selfishness robs us of tranquility because we are never satisfied if we are selfish, and it diminishes our possibilities for excitement because selfishness narrows our range of interests.

1. Mill’s Persistent Optimism

1. Mill believed that no insurmountable conditions existed to prevent the emergency of a truly healthy society.

1. Mill believed that the chief task of well-intentioned people was to address the causes of social misfortune that can be avoided or altered.

1. Mills believed that liberties of thought and speech are absolutely necessary for the general happiness since we can only determine truth by the ongoing clash of opinions.

1. Mills worried about the tyranny of the majority and assigning to much weight to majority beliefs. e.g. the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution keeps the majority from trampling on the rights of the individual.

1. Mills believed that by applying reason and good will the vast majority of human beings could live with dignity, political and moral freedom, and happiness.

1. He believed that the wisdoms of society combined with good sense could eradicate poverty.

1. He believed that scientific progress along with good education could alleviate disease.

1. Bad social institutions, ill-regulated desires and gross imprudence are the source of bad fortune and other disappointments according to Mill.

1. However, Mill believed that they are conquerable by human effort.

1. Mill’s optimism is based on a universal sense of connectedness.

1. Against Liberty

0. Philosopher Sarah Conly rejects the liberal principle that respect for our dignity as individuals rests on our freedom to make poor choices.

0. According to Conly, our liberties need to be curtailed in light of new knowledge about our limits as rational thinkers.

0. She believes that we need restrictive laws to nudge us to do, according to those who know best, whatever is necessary to improve the well-being of society and individuals.

1. Commentary

1. Bentham’s failure to consider the quality of pleasures is a fatal flaw to his philosophy.

1. Bentham’s hedonic calculus is unworkable and not really scientific.

1. Mill fails to completely resolve the tension between hedonism and altruism.

1. Mills’ attempt to rate the quality of pleasures according to the judgment of those who experienced them cannot be empirically supported.

1. Mills’ distinguishing between higher and lower pleasures reflects his cultural bias. e.g. is possible to know action hero movies and art house movies and prefer action hero movies.

1. Mill’s idea of what is a higher pleasure is influenced by his biases as a member of an educated, culturally conditioned, aristocratic elite.

1. Emphasis on the greatest happiness for the greatest number can ignore minority rights.

1. Even though we know if something will result in the greatest happiness for the greatest number we should still ask whether it is right. Morality is based on more than just considerations of happiness.

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