philosophy ( ethics )- Homework

Utilitarianism 7 November 2016

Assignment 6 • For this assignment you will need to watch a show, or

movie, of your choice.

• You will need to watch the show or movie carefully to pick out at least one instance of a moral dilemma.

• Then, you will describe the moral dilemma, and explain who you think a utilitarian, and a deontologist would solve the dilemma.

• Be sure to explain to explain why they would solve the dilemma in the way you have described.

Review • What is the difference between normative theories

and metaethical theories?

• What does the term ‘normative’ mean?

• What are the three most significant normative theories?

Normative Theories • The three normative theories are:

• Utilitarianism

• Deontology

• Virtue Theory

• Describe how these theories differ with respect to how they define the good, what is right, and the focus for moral evaluation.

Utilitarianism • The good is an experiential state: pleasure, happiness,

and what is bad are the opposite states of pain and sadness.

• The utilitarian thinks that what is right are those actions whose consequences promote, or bring about, the good experiential states.

• The focus is on the consequences of the action, and these determine what is right or wrong. The utilitarian wants to maximize goodness in the consequences of an act.

Deontology • The good for the deontologist are certain moral

goods: autonomy, rationality, morality itself.

• Actions are right or wrong based on whether they preserve or promote the goods or not.

• The deontologist focuses on the actions itself, and whether the nature of an action is good or bad.

• Deontologists are rule-based: they will derive a set of rules based on the intrinsic nature of actions.

Virtue Theory • The virtue theorist thinks that morality is about character.

What is valuable is human well-being, in terms of human happiness and flourishing.

• Human happiness and flourishing are the result of acting in a certain manner—a virtuous manner.

• The utilitarian focuses on individual character, and thinks that acts that are the result of a virtuous habit are right, and those that result from the vices are wrong.

• The emphasis for this theory is on behavior and character.

Classical Utilitarianism • There are two early varieties of utilitarianism:

• Mill

• Bentham

• Both of these theorists meant for utilitarianism to be a practical theory of the social good.

• They focus on the promotion of pleasure, but differ on what they take pleasure to be. 


Bentham • For Bentham, the greatest moral aim was the promotion of

pleasure, and the amelioration of suffering.

• He came up with the consequentialist principle: rightness or wrongness of an act is determined by the goodness or the badness of the results that flow from it.

• And the utility principle: The only thing that is good in and of itself is some kind of state.

• These together formed his theory. For Bentham, you engage in a hedonic calculus, and choose the action that promotes the greatest good for the greatest amount (the most hedons).

• Good was to be understood in terms of basic hedonic pleasure.

Mill • Mill had a more sophisticated variety of utilitarianism. A

eudiamonistic variety, that focused not on basic hedonic pleasure, but on intellectual, social and aesthetic pleasures.

• He thus had a qualitative difference, and not just a quantitive difference, to measure in his account of pleasure.

• The higher pleasures are more sophisticated than the lower.

• But how do we known this? Empirical evidence.

• His empiricism ended up leading him to be charged with having an elitist theory.

Contemporary Utilitarianism • T h e re a re t w o v a r i e t i e s o f c o n t e m p o r a r y

utilitarianism to discuss:

• Act utilitarianism.

• Rule utilitarianism.

• The latter is sometimes charged with not being consistent with utilitarianism.

Act Utilitarianism • The focus of calculation is on each individual act.

• An act is right if and only if it results in as much good as any available action.

• How does this work?

Rule-Utilitarianism • The focus here is on types of actions, and whether they in

general promote the most good or not.

• An act is right if and only if it is required by a rue that is itself a member of a set of rules whose acceptance would lead to greater utility for society than any other available alternative.

• How does this work?

• Negative responsibility: that we are responsible not only for the consequences of our actions, but also our non-actions.

Internal Issues • There are two issues that are internal to utilitarian

theory—meaning that utilitarians argue about these inconsistencies in their theory and how to fix them.

• Problems with formulating the theory.

• The problem of knowing the comparative consequences of actions.

Formulating Utilitarianism • Utilitarianism says that we need to maximize the

greatest good for the greatest number.

• But, what do we do when these two superlative conditions conflict?

Comparative Consequences • Utilitarianism seems to assume that human’s have

some God-like power, involving knowledge of the future.

• Three kinds of consequences:

• Actual consequences. (Absolute)

• Reasonably expected consequences. (Objective)

• Intended consequences. (Subjective)

External Issues • These are the issues that people who reject

utilitarianism all-together have with the theory.

• The no-rest objection.

• The absurd-implications objection.

• The integrity objection.

• The justice objection.

• The publicity objection.

No-Rest • With act utilitarianism we would be constantly trying

to figure out how to act—there are always an infinite number of actions to choose from.

• I would have no rest, no right to enjoy life, if there is always the possibility that I could be making others happier

• Morality is too demanding.

Absurd Implications • The theory is counter-intuitive.

• Things like truth seems to be intrinsically good, but they are not always recognized on the utilitarian theory.

• Truth is the main issue here. As utilitarianism would be able to permit dishonesty and falsity on many occasions.

Integrity Objection • Certain thought experiments have demonstrated

that utilitarianism violates our personal integrity, requiring we act against some of the most deeply held principles.

• The story of Jim…

Justice • There is a a cavalier sense of justice that is

employed by utilitarian theory—and this seems frightening.

• The physician...

• The sheriff…

Publicity • Not everyone should act a utilitarian because it i

hard work, and only trained specialists, like philosophers, should do they heavy intellectual lifting.

• So the theory isn’t practical because it doesn’t meet the requirement of publicity.