EL4.1

• Epicureanism

  • Roughly consequentialist, it is hedonistic and agent-relative.
  • An action is morally good if it gives maximum pleasure to its agent, while it is morally bad if otherwise.
  • Happiness is not gained through a constant succession of intense sensual pleasures but through the state of serenity.
  • Epicurus wants passive pleasure because it is less intense and long lasting.
• Utilitarianism

  • Most influential form of consequentialism
  • Championed by British Philosophers Jeremy Bentham & John Stuart Mill
  • States that if one can increase the overall happiness of the world, or that of an individual, then one should.
  • Hedonistic and agent-non-relative
• Bentham’s Quantitative Utilitarianism

  • Emphasizes the quantitative differences between types of pleasures.
  • Introduced the calculus of felicity or hedonistic calculus to measure the quantity of pleasures (↑good of the action, ↑hedons)
• Mill’s Qualitative Utilitarianism

  • Emphasizes the qualitative differences between types of pleasure.
  • There is a significant difference between physical and mental pleasures.
• Greatest Happiness Principle – actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.
• Rule Utilitarianism – follow rules which ultimately lead to the maximization of pleasure.
• Ethical Egoism – actions should maximize personal benefit only (the effect on others is irrelevant)
• Ethical Altruism – actions should maximize the benefits to others (the effect on you is irrelevant)
• State Consequentialism – actions should benefit the state.
• Consequentialism as a morally attractive theory:

  • Stresses the way people are affected by our actions.
  • Rejects egoism and ethnocentrism.
  • Definite answer to every question concerning the moral rightness of actions.
• Consequentialism as a morally offensive theory:

  • Disregards the weight of some morally unacceptable consequences.
  • Too demanding
  • Relies on speculative outcomes
  • Incomplete and groundless
  • Fails to put due consideration to individual agency and commitment to personal values.