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
