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Utilitarianism - Coggle Diagram
Utilitarianism
Rule utilitarianism
Devised by john Stuart mill - focuses on the application of moral rules to decision making and how these rules can create the greatest happiness
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‘Harm principle’
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He stated that if an action involved in hurting another person, it was wrong
Applying this harm principle to utilitarianism makes the hedonic calculus more ethical and prevents people from using it i a non moral way
Act utilitarianism
Bentham act utilitarianism focuses on the consequences of an action, not the intention behind it
Principles of act
Avoids moral rules, such as the Ten Commandments
If an action produces the greatest happiness for the largest amount of people, then a moral rule does not matter
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Criticisms
Pleasure can be bad
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The hedonic calculus can be used in a bad way to simply achieve what people want rather than looking at what is actually good for the majority
Family attachments
Bentham says we need to look past family attachments and this should et come into out decision process
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Disadvantages
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It takes time to apply the hedonic calculus to every decision you male. So it isn’t logical to use it for every decision
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The hedonic calculus
A method of applying the utility principle to the potential decisions ad working out which action will produce the most pleasure
The heroic calculus asks seven questions about the potential action. This then concludes how much pleasure or pain would result from this
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Utility
The utility principle
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The definition of utility is usefulness. So the utility principle analyses the usefulness of the actions
Applied to potential decisions and is used to decide whether this action will reduce the largest amount of pleasure for the largest amount of people