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Chapter 2: Utilitarianism 41lJWligwkL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_ - Coggle…

- - - - orphan on his first voyage
        
        drank seawater and became ill
      - killed to save the others
        
        others ate him out of necessity
  - - - did the benefits of killing the cabin boy outweigh the costs?
        
        accepts the utilitarian assumption that morality consists in weighing costs and benefits
        
        simply wants a fuller reckoning of the social consequences
      - if the benefits do outweigh the costs, is killing and eating the defenseless boy wrong for reasons that go beyond the calculations of social costs and benefits?
        
        rejects the ides that the right thing to do is simply a matter of calculating costs and benefits
        
        suggests morality means something to do with the proper way humans should treat one another
  - - - right thing to do is whatever will produce the best state of affairs, all things considered
    - - certain duties and rights should command our respect, for reasons independent of the social consequences
- - - - "nonsense upon stilts"
        
        modesty wasn't one of his character traits
      - philosophy he founded has had an influential career
        
        exerts a powerful hold on thinking of policy-makers, economists, business executives, and ordinary citizens to this day
    - - promotes the greatest good for the greatest number
  - - - every moral argument must draw on the idea of maximizing happiness
        
        all moral quarrels are disagreements about how to apply the utilitarian principle of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain
        
        not about the principle itself
        
        the only earth, the only premise, the only starting point for moral argument is the principle of utility
        
        offers a science of morality that can serve as a basis of political reform
        
        Panopticon: a prison with an inspection tower that would enable a supervisor to observe inmates without seeing him
        
        would be run by a private contractor
        
        his plan was ultimately rejected
        
        arguably ahead of its time
        
        recent years have seen a revival in the US and Britain of the idea of outsourcing prisons to private companies
    - - the overall balance of pleasure over pain
        
        "we all like pleasure and dislike pain"
        
        "sovereign masters"
        
        basis of moral and political life
      - do whatever will maximize utility and prevent pain or suffering
        
        principle for individuals and legislators
        
        do what will maximize the happiness of a community as a whole
  - - - observed this action reduces the happiness of passersby in two ways
        
        sight of a beggar produces the pain of sympathy for tenderhearted
        
        generates the pain of disgust for hardhearted
    - - He concludes that the sum of the pains suffered by the public is greater than whatever unhappiness is felt by beggars
- - - - virtue
      - Knowledge
- - - - defense of individual freedom
        
        people should be free to do whatever they want, provided they do no harm to others
        
        the only actions for which a person is accountable to society are those that affect others
        
        we should maximize utility, not case by case, but in the long run
        
        Mill's ideas about social effects of liberty do not provide a convincing moral basis for individual rights for two reasons
        
        respecting individual rights for the sake of promoting social progress leaves rights hostage to contingency
        
        basing rights on utilitarian considerations misses the sense in which violating someone’s rights inflicts a wrong on the individual, whatever its effect on the general welfare
        
        believes its not just about a person's actions, their character also counts
  - - - believes you can make this distinction without relying on any moral ideas other than utility itself
        
        some kinds of pleasure are more desirable than others
- - - - voted least enjoyable
    - - second most votes of most enjoyable
    - - most votes as most enjoyable
        
        despite this, students believe Shakespeare would be highest pleasure