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Customary Morality (Mill on Tendency ('Mankind must by this time have…
Customary Morality
Mill on Tendency
'Mankind must by this time have acquired positive beliefs as the effects of some actions on their happiness'
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Tendency has more to-do with decision making, than the criterion of rightness
Smart
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'In science, general principles must be tested by reference to particular facts of observation. In ethics we may well take the opposite attitude, and test our particular moral attitudes by reference to more general ones.'
Urmson
'For Mill moral rules are not merely rules of thumb which aid the unreflective man in making up his mind, but an essential part of moral reasoning.'
'But note that strictly one can say that a certain action tends to produce a certain result only if one is speaking of type- rather than token- actions. Drinking alcohol may tend to promote exhilaration, but my drinking this particular glass either does or does not produce it'
Tendency objection: actions may be correlated to consequences, but an act may not necessarily cause certain results.
Mill suggests that in the vast majority of cases where there is little moral conflict, we can rely on tendency - but this does not mean we can always do so.
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Criticisms
Rule worship: Utilitarianism is too demanding and does not permit us to make time for ourselves - it forces us to maximise utility at all times
Welfarism: Mill advocates customary morality to be secondary, but in practice it is not subservient to the principle of utility, as it is more instinctive
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Crisp
In response to impracticality objection, Mill claims we shouldn't need to calculate things
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'According to Mill, customary morality has no ultimate validity. Our engagement in it is justified only but the utilitarian principle'
Rules of morality are like signposts for the traveller - traveller is not bound to follow, but they help save time navigating
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Strengths
Supererogation
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Perfect and imperfect obligations: perfect is those where the recipient has a right to something, imperfect are supererogatory – principle of utility is not a perfect obligation as not about rights