PHIL 101 Chapter 5: Utilitarianism

What are the reasons in which Mill states that people can lose their capacity for the nobler feelings and choose the lower pleasures?

- Weakness for the nearer goods - People with whom they associate with - Activities they occupy themselves with

What are the seven factors of Bentham's Hedonic Calculus?

-Intensity - Duration - Certainty/uncertainty - Proximity (How soon the pleasure will occur) - Fecudinity (how likely is it to lead to other pleasures) -Purity (will the pleasure produced be intermixed with pain?) - Extent (How many people benefit from it)

What type of person deserves punishment according to Mill?

A gambler who is unable to pay off their debts.

Principle of Utility

Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness and are wrong if they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

Rule utilitarianism

Focuses on general types of actions in determining whether they lead to good or bad results.

Act utilitarianism

Focuses on the individual actions and says we should apply the principle of utility in order to evaluate them.

In reply to the objection that utilitarianism is a godless doctrine, what does Mill state?

God seeks human happiness and the principal of utility can help people achieve this happiness.

What does the Liberty principle best promote?

Happiness of individuals

How does Mill's utilitarianism compare to Benthams?

He recognizes that there are higher and lower pleasures. Higher pleasures are intellectual and lower pleasures are physical.

How is rule utilitarianism more practical?

It focuses on general types of actions to determine whether they lead to good or bad results.

What is utilitarianism?

It is a form of consequentialism; the moral rightness or wrongness of an action depend on the consequences produced.

Criticism of Utilitarianism

It seems willing to sacrifice the interests and lives of individuals for the sake of the benefit of a larger group.

How is utilitarianism different from deontology?

It takes practicality and the effects of an action into consideration rather than making us follow our moral duties and obligations.

How would act utilitarianism act to the trolley dilemma? Rule utilitarianism?

It would be justifiable for an act utilitarian to sacrifice the life of the overweight individual; For a rule utilitarian, it is not justifiable because it doesn't lead to good outcomes.

Would Mill approve of banning same-sex marriage?

No because he disagrees with moralism.

Two sovereign masters according to Bentham

Pain and pleasure

Actual consequence utilitarians vs. forseeable consequence utilitarians

The former bases the moral rightness and wrongness of actions on the actual consequences, whereas the latter base the evaluation on foreseeable consequences.

According to Mill, what does the liberty of people consist of?

The liberty of tastes, liberty to unite, and the liberty of thought.

Moral Theory of Utilitarianism

The morally right action is the action that produces the most good i.e.: more happiness, less pain.

Mill states that in democratic states, individual liberty is a struggle against

The tyranny of the majority

How does Mill reply to the objection that there is not enough time to calculate right vs. wrong actions?

There is enough time if one builds upon the lessons learned throughout history.

Why would act utilitarianism be impractical?

We have to apply the principle of utility for each action to evaluate them.

Morality of Utilitarianism

What is morally right is what leads to the better outcome, and happiness is desirable as an end in itself.

For mill, the proper relation between my own happiness and others is that

they should be weighed equally.