Chapter 2 Utilitarianism

Why did Bentham want his body embalmed for display?

-He asked himself a question consistent with philosophy: what use is a dead man to the living? He wanted to continue his work of promiting the greated good and continue discussions of his philoshophy

Utilitarianism Founder

-Jeremy Bentham

How do John Stuart Mill's ideas differ or build on Bentham's?

-Mill's believes utility should be maximized over the long run (not immediately) -respecting individual liberty will lead to the greatest human happiness -conformity is wrong because it subjects individuals to not a full lived human life. -tried to recast utilitarianism as a more humane and less calculating doctrine.

In your own words, what are Sandel's two objections to Bentham's utilitarianism?

-Sandel believes that Bentham's utilitarianism does not exhibit the significance to human dignity and individual rights as well believes everything can not be reduced to a single scale.

What criticisms does Sandel offer to Mill's utilitarian ideas? Use examples in your answer to explain Sandel's points.

-Sandel doesnt agree that all societys would want to progress in the same way and beleive individual rights are important . -Mill ignores the idea that violating individual rights still harms the individual not just society.(Mill beleives individual rights are good for society but it needs to be for the individual.)

Jeremy Bentham Ideas

-believed utilitarianism was universal/indisputable -no one has natural rights, "nonsense upon stilts" -prison tower that goes in a circle to watch every prisoner so fear does not allow bad behavior+prisoners work 16 hours per day to pay salary of guards. -poor house that has a bill on beggars for housing/food. Beggars must pay of their bill as well as the money given to pedestrians who bring in the beggars (2 shingles). People don't like beggars because it makes them feel sad or hatred so put the beggars away. Blind beggars would be housed with those who are deformed.

Utilitarianism

-morality lies in weighting costs and benifits -maximizing pleasure and pain -what benifits the collective -everything can be measured on the same scale -maximize happiness Ex: when sailors killed and ate 17 year old ship mate because he was sick and they needed to live because they had wife and children.

4 Different types of Justice

-preemptive -retibutive -resorative -distributive

Restorative

-righting a wrong through compensation -recognize and help victims -repairing harm done

Distributive

-socially just allocation of goods Ex: redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor

Preemptive

-taken as a measure against something possible, anticipated, or feared. -doing better for society before hand to assure the "bad thing" will not occur again. Ex: Edycating evryone do lessen crime.

Retibutive

-the want for revenge/punishment Ex: death penalty/prison.

How Mill altered Bentham's philosophy

-tried to make utilitarianism more humane -people should be free to do as they want so long as it does not harm others -overall the respect of individual liberties will lead to the greatest communal happiness -mill also tries to say that there may be higher and lower pleasures, and that we can distinguish between them

What two reasons does Mill give for upholding individual liberty as part of utilitarianism?

1) He believes that the majority perspective controlling society could be wrong or partially true, 2) As a society forces conformity the society deprives itself and it's population from social improvement and happiness.

Sandels objection to utalitarinism

1) disregards individual rights 2)reduces values to a single cost benifit.

Sandel v.s. utalitarianism

Ex: is torture ever justified? If we have one man who we beleive is guilty and we must torture him for info and save hundreds of thousands then it's ok. This shows that morality is about calculating costs and benifits. But,the case for torturing him depends soley on the fact that he is guilty. V.S. city of omalas where an innocent boy is tortured.

Individual Rights

the liberties of each individual to pursue life and goals without interference from other individuals or the government