Ethics # 9

 Moral guideline: to make life bearable for as many people as possible.

 Sometimes this involves doing something actively.

 In other cases, it may be staying out of a situation.

 Hard universalists  Single moral code

 Principle of utility or greatest happiness principle  Always pick the action that will maximize happiness (and/or

minimize unhappiness) for the greatest number of people

 What causes pain is morally wrong.

 Concerned with the consequences of our actions.

 Developed theory of utilitarianism

 Bentham donated his body to science and his money to the University College of London

 Bentham: what is good is pleasurable.  Hedonistic utilitarianism

 What is good and bad for each person is a matter for that person to decide.

 Bentham’s Hedonistic Calculus  How we choose a course of action.

 Investigate the aspects of a consequence:  Its intensity: how intense will pleasure/pain be

 Its duration: how long it will last

 Its certainty: how sure are we that the pleasure/pain will happen

 Its fecundity: what are chances it will be followed by similar pleasure/pain

 Its purity: how big are chances it won’t be followed by opposite

 Its extent: how many people affected

 John Stuart Mill  Felt that education should be major goal.

 Problem with seeing good = pleasure and evil = pain

 Bentham assumed that people would always follow moral calculations.

 Mill realized we are creatures of habit

 More in life than physical pleasure

 Mill’s Higher pleasures  Greatest pleasures require some effort.

 Ask people familiar with both kinds of pleasure

 Cultural imperialist (trying to impose his own standards)

 Higher pleasures yield higher form of happiness in long run

 Mill’s Harm Principle  The only purpose for which power can be exercised over

a member of a civilized community is to prevent harm to others.

 Mill’s views often called “classical liberalism” because of focus on personal liberty.

 What about suicide? Direct vs. indirect harm.

Kant’s Deontology

 Deontology: theory of moral obligation

 Consequences are not important; having a good will is.  Neighbor lighting the furnace (page 282).

 Utilitarian: only the consequences count

 Kant: his intentions were good

 How do we know our will is good?  We must ask whether we can imagine our intentions as a

general law for everyone.

 Kant is a hard universalist.

 People generally know what they ought to do. It’s usually the opposite of what we want to do!

 Categorical imperative: we decide to do something because it might be applied to everyone as a universal moral law.

 Categorical = not dependent on individual desire but absolute

 Ask what you want to do right now.

 Then imagine making that action into a rule.

 You’ve identified your maxim.

 Then, ask whether that maxim should be a universal rule for everyone to follow.

 If yes, do it.

 If no, you shouldn’t do it.

 Immense faith in human rationality.

 All that is needed is good will and reason.

 Found “Golden Rule” too simplistic.

 1. Consequences matter.  2. Conf lict between duties.

 Inventory at work vs. study for final exam

 3. Possible loopholes  Can describe the situation so specifically so it only applies to

you (Every time, Debra who works at ERAU and lives in Daytona Beach, FL wants to . . .)

 4. What is rationality?  5. No exceptions? Are there really no cases where it’s better

to break the universal rule?  Hiding a friend from a killer? Obligation is to the truth.  Kant believes if we break the rule, we must answer to the

consequences.

 People shouldn’t be used as tools, as means to an end.  Slavery, other examples where someone is used without

regard to his intrinsic value.

 Moral autonomy  The only moral authority that can tell us to do

something (or not) is our own reason).

 If we all disregard inclinations and follow the same principle, everyone following good rules.

 Kingdom of ends (community of people treating each other as ends only, not as means to end).