Naturalism

• Purity- a pleasure that is mixed with pain is not as good as one that is just pleasure
• Remoteness (propinquity)- if the pleasure is far off in space or time, the act is less right
• Intensity- A more intense pleasure is preferable to a weaker pleasure
• Certainty- If the act guarantees a pleasure, the act is better than one that merely makes a pleasure likely
• Extent- the more people who will enjoy the pleasure, the better the act
• Duration- Pleasures that last are preferable to those that don't
• Fecundity- The likelihood that the pleasure or pain will be followed by more pleasures or pains
• A utilitarian view of what is right is what causes pleasure
• A utilitarian view of what is wrong is what causes pain
• Naturalism- the view that moral values can be described in terms of natural properties
• love and happiness are subjective and personal
• Moral values are an objective part of the universe
• Moral values exist and can be described and therefore can be understood
• Naturalism is grounded in the facts of nature, or in the facts of human nature
• Trolley problem

  
• Eudaimonia- happiness, well-being and human flourishing
• Eudaimonia was established in Aristotle's virtue ethics
• Jeremy Bentham created the hedonic calculus in order to measure the goodness of an action
• "Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do as well as what we shall do" - Bentham
• Bentham argues that we should treat happiness as a mathematical formula- happiness is not quantifiable
• "An action is only good if it produces the most amount of pleasure for the greatest number"- Bentham
• Bentham's prison aimed to reform offenders by making it so they did not know if and when they were being observed, over time they would adjust to be moral members of society
• Rodger Crisp's Analogy of Haydn and the Oyster

  • Your soul is in heaven waiting to be allocated a life
  • An angel gives you the option of Joseph Haydn or an oyster
  • The angel complains it cannot get rid of the oyster and says if you pick the oyster, you will live as long as you want
  • No matter how much pleasure you derive from being Haydn, if the oyster experiences mild pleasure forever, it will always experience more pleasure
  • Still, almost all would choose Haydn
• Crisp aims to show that quantity of pleasure does not appeal to most, it is the quality that defines a good life. All pleasure is not equal
• Mill argues that some pleasures are intrinsically more valuable than others: higher pleasures
• Once we are aware of these higher pleasures, we won't want to leave them uncultivated
• "It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied, it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied"- Mill
• Something is a higher pleasure "if it would be chosen over another pleasure even if it was accompanied by discomfort"
• Those who can enjoy both lower and higher pleasures get more fulfilment from higher pleasures
• "no intelligent human would consent to be a fool" - Mill
• Some give up a life of happiness (ascetics) for a higher end, the pleasure of enlightenment
• Virtue is a part of the abstract whole of happiness, so striving for virtue is still striving for pleasure
• Mills has been criticised for being an elitist as highest pleasures are associated more with the upper classes
• The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas- analogy

  • Omelas is a city where everyone is happy, healthy and rich
  • The success of Omelas depends on one child living in a dungeon of filth, darkness and misery
  • Every citizen has to see the child, show it no love and consent to its continued misery for the sake of the city
  • Some forsake the city when they see the child, they do not know where they are going but they leave
• The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas was written by Ursula K Le Guin
• The One Who Walks Away from Omelas emphasises that Utilitarianism would permit the child being locked away if it meant great pleasure for all others
• Utilitarianism can argue that murdering one person is moral if it brings the pleasure of two
• Mill's main argument in 'Liberty' and 'Utilitarianism' is that the first point of utility is the protection and safety of all