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Utilitarianism - Coggle Diagram
Utilitarianism
Jeremy Bentham
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he thought humans are simple creatures, motivated by the desire to avoid pain and experience pleasure
when deciding whether an action is good or bad, we should simply focus on how much pleasure/pain it will cause
if an action causes more pleasure than suffering, it should be viewed as good
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"Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we shall do." - Bentham (An Introduction to the Principals of Morals and Legislation)
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hedonic calculus
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this involves considering on one side all the pleasure an action might produce and on the other side any pain it might cause. the amount of pain is then subtracted from the amount of pleasure to find what Bentham called the 'Utility' (usefulness) of an action.
the more pleasure an action produces, the more useful it is.
If there is no other action that creates a high happiness value, then you have found the best action
flaws
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we cannot predict the future and so can never be certain of what the consequences of an action will be
often there isn't time to apply the hedonic calculus to situations - however some utilitarians would respond to this by saying that general rules should be created that work most of the time, rather than individuals working out what is right and wrong in every situation
Intensity- How strong is the pleasure/pain involved? Duration- How long will the pleasure/pain last?
Certainty- How sure are we that the anticipated pleasure/pain will occur?
Propinquity- How soon will the pleasure/pain occur?
Fecundity- How likely is it that the pleasure will lead to further pleasure?
Purity- How likely is it that pain will result from the original pleasure?
Extent- How many people will be affected?
John Stuart Mill
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argues that there are both 'higher pleasures' and 'lower pleasures' e.g. the pleasure found in reading Shakespeare is higher than the pleasure of a pig rolling in mud
thought that it is not the quantity or amount of pleasure produced by an action but the quality which was most important
however, deciding which pleasures were higher or lower causes much disagreement
"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied" - John Stuart Mill
merits
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e.g. it is your birthday and you are going out for dinner with friends + family, you love Thai food but no one else is very keen. Utilitarians would argue that as special as you are, even if it is your birthday, you are no more special than anyone else, so you would not get the Thai food, you would go with the majority vote.
Utilitarians suggest that we make our moral decisions from the position of a benevolent, disinterested spectator
Batman and the joker
joker causes havoc everywhere and to everyone, should batman kill the joker?
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key principle
utilitarians believe that the best action in any situation is the one that creates the greatest amount of pleasure or good for the greatest number of people
they are relativists, meaning they believe that no action is good/bad in all circumstances; whether an action is good or bad depends on its context and consequences
flaws
critics argue that right and wrong cannot simply be reduced to pleasure and pain; morality is more complicated than this and other things need to be considered
Bentham's view that no actions are always wrong and human rights do not exist could be used to justify cruelty to an individual or minority group if it created happiness for the majority
e.g. The Sadistic Guards - if 3 prison guards took pleasure in torturing a prisoner, this would be allowed because causes happiness to a greater number
e.g. if imprisoning an innocent person would make the inhabitants of a village feel safer after a crime had been committed, then there would be no reason not to do this