Bentham

• what does utilitarianism hold?

  that the morally right course of action in any situation is the one that produces the greatest balance of benefits over harms
• what does Bentham insist?

  that people are motivated to seek pleasure and to avoid pain
• Bentham was what we would today call a...?

  "social scientist"
• Bentham sought to do what?

  look at how people behaved and what motivated them to make the choices they did
• what is a direct quote from Bentham?

  "nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure"
• the desire to pursue pleasure and to avoid pain leads us to what?

  the principle of utility
• what does the utility principle argue?

  that an action is correct if it promotes happiness and wrong if it creates pain
• so in any situation...?

  we should seek the maximum happiness, or benefit, for the maximum number of people involved
• Bentham's social conscience led him to the conclusion that...?

  everyone had an equal right to happiness or benefit, irrespective of their situation or status in life
• how did Bentham's utilitarianism reflect his social and political views?

  it was democratic - in that it treated everybody alike
• this contrasted with what he saw of conventional social and legal rules...?

  which tended to benefit those in power
• Bentham was a legal reformer, what did he seek?

  an objective basis that would provide a publicly acceptable norm for determining what kind of laws England should intact
• utilitarian ideas can be identified in todays society, how?

  as many of us use this type of moral reasoning in our daily decisions
• for example... (who)?

  business analysts, legislators and scientists use a utilitarian way of thinking when weighing the benefits/harms of policies
• give direct examples:

  whether to invest in certain projects/approve a new drug/ban a pesticide
• pleasure and pain can be measured using what?

  the hedonic calculus
• what are the 7 principles of the hedonic calculus?

  1. intensity (how strong)
  2. duration (how long)
  3. certainty (how likely)
  4. propinquity (how soon)
  5. fecundity (similar pleasures in future?)
  6. purity (balance of pleasure over pain)
  7. extent (how far will the pleasure/pain extend to others affected by the action)
• it may sound rather clinical to examine pleasure or happiness in this way, but what does it fit with?

  Bentham's overall desire to establish something of a science of moral and political action
• what did Bentham want to have?

  a rational, evidential basis for his moral, legal and political choices
• to conclude, what is the calculus looking to establish?

  whether an act has a balance of pleasure over pain, if it does, the act is good/right
• Bentham's is an "Act Utilitarian" theory, so in other words...?

  one should choose the action that maximises utility in any particular situation - one should seek to achieve "the greatest good for the greatest number"
• what does Bentham's utilitarianism put too much emphasis on?

  the consequences of our actions
• what is it difficult - even impossible to do?

  measure/compare the values of certain benefits/harms
• why is it difficult to measure/compare the values of certain benefits/harms?

  how do you go about assigning value to life or art? and can we ever really be certain about all consequences of our actions
• what does utilitarianism ignore?

  motives, rules and duties
• how does utilitarianism ignore motives, rules and duties?

  the morality of an action is in why you do it. People need to have the stability of moral rules and it is their duty to obey them
• who does utilitarianism ignore the rights of?

  minorities - to take an extreme situation for example, utilitarianism could be seen to justify gang rape - their pleasure exceeds her pleasure "pleasure for the greatest number"
• utilitarianism fails because it cannot bridge what?

  the "is-ought" gap, because Moore argued that all naturalist theories commit the naturalistic fallacy of going from an "is" to an "ought"