Philosophy 110 Ch. 2

According to Simpson's Paradox,

utilitarians may be morally obligated to make everyone alive less happy

According to experimental psychology,

situations are more predictive of behavior than character "character" is just a story we tell about people after they act in certain ways appeal to character does not adequately explain people's actions

According to Kant, the principle of action "act selfishly" violates the Categorical Imperative because

you couldn't consistently will it to be a universal law of nature -- you would want help in time of need

Bentham thought that

push-pin is as good as poetry, provided the quantity of pleasure is the same

Utilitarianism is an agent-neutral moral theory, which means that

everyone has the same duties and aims, no matter what their personal interests or interpersonal relationships

Another objection to utilitarianism is

for utilitarians, we have no stronger duties to friends and family than we do to strangers

Kant's other formulation of the Categorical Imperative is

Act only according to those principles that you can will to be a universal law

One formulation of Kant's Categorical Imperative is

Treat others as ends in themselves and never merely as means to your own ends

According to consequentialism,

all that morally matters is the consequences of action

Classical utilitarianism is

consequentialism + hedonism

According to hedonism

happiness is the highest good

According to Kant, the principle of action "promise to achieve your own advantage even when you know you cannot keep the promise" violates the Categorical Imperative because

if the principle were a universal law of nature, promising would become impossible

An example of a hypothetical imperative is

if you are planning to pass the test, then you should study if you're going to drink, then don't drive if you can't make our meeting, be sure to call if you're planning to read Kant, then drink lots of coffee first

An objection to virtue ethics is

if you have to look at the consequences of action to see which treats are virtuous, then virtue ethics is just a disguised form of utilitarianism

One objection to utilitarianism is that

it isn't practical, since we can't predict all the outcomes of our actions it is too invasive, since it means that every minor action has moral weight the rare no supererogatory actions, since there is no good action that is greater that what duty requires

One objection to Kantian ethics is

lying is always immoral according to Kant, even when there are horrible consequences to telling the truth

Aristotle thought that

many virtues are the golden mean between related vices of deficiency or excess

According to virtue ethics,

moral virtues are those character traits that it is valuable for everyone to have

An objection to utilitarianism is that

no action, no matter how intuitively heinous, is absolutely forbidden

Mill argued that in addition to maximizing the quantity of pleasures, utilitarians should also be concerned with

promoting higher quality pleasures

In the Felicific Calculus, the fecundity of a pleasure or pain is

the chance it has to be followed by the same type of sensation

Another objection to virtue ethics is

the virtues can conflict with each other

According to Kant

there is a moral law universally binding on everyone