ETHICS

• UTILITARIANISM - ethical theory that argues for the goodness of pleasure and the determination of right behavior based on the usefulness of the action's consequences.
• Utilitarianism is consequential.
• Utilitarianism is consequential. This means that the moral value of action and decision id based solely or greatly is based on the usefulness of their consequences; it is the usefulness of result that determines whether the action or behavior is good or bad.
• 2 Utilitarian thinker: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
• Jeremy Bentham is the intellectual inheritor of David Hume
• Utilitarianism based on Jeremy Bentham is a moral theory based on experiences of pleasure and pare
• Principle of Utility " greatest good for the greatest number"
• Principle of Utility - the greatest net balance of happiness over unhappiness"
• Principle of Utility - action should be evaluated according to their ability to produce pleasure and pain.
• Principle of utility- action that leads to pleasure is right and actions that lead to pain is wrong.
• Utility Calculus- A mathematical framework that allows us to calculate the value of a good or service.
• Utility Calculus- Bentham talked about it where we could literally add up the units of positive utility and subtract all the units of negative utility and get an exact number of units of utility produced by each action.
• John Stuart Mill is raised according to utilitarian ideas
• John Stuart Mill is a empiricist
• JSM says that policy should be based on our experiences of pleasure and pain, not tradition.
• J.S. Mill worried that Bentham's theory wasn't complete
• Problem with Bentham theory - it lacks quality
• 2 pleasures - high quality of pleasure and low quality of pleasure
• High quality of pleasure - means that the pleasure is intense, prolonged, and intense. - intellectual
• Low quality of pleasure -is when the pleasure is not intense or long lasting. - pleasure of body like appetite
• Social Hedonism - an action is right if and only if it results the greatest number of pleasure for the greatest number
• Government should not pass laws that protect tradition, customs, or rights
• Social Hedonism - Government should base all laws on the happiness principle
• Mill's great word on ethics.
• We are made happy by "elevated pleasure"
• Pleasure can be high or low quality.
• Better to be Socrates dissatisfied that a fool satisfiesd
• We need to pay attention to quality because our ability to enjoy higher pleasure (happiness/social hedonism) can be damaged by too much low pleasure ( good/utilitarian)
• Jeremy Bentham is the founder of Utilitarianism
• JB- utilitarianism id based on the idea that pleasure and pain are the motivation for all human actions
• Notes British philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham was born of Feb 15, 1748
• Jeremy Bentham - the principle of utility is our subjection to these sovereign master : pleasure and pain
• Bentham quotes " happiness with pleasure".
• John Stuart Mill is bentham's godson
• JSM believes that happiness, not pleasure, should be the standard of utility.
• Mill rejected Bentham's use of the Hedonic Calculus. In his views some pleasure are of a higher quality than other
• Mill argues that we must consider the quality of the happiness, not merely the quantity
• For Mill, utilitarianism cannot promote the kind of pleasures appropriate to pigs or to any other animals.
• crude bestial pleasures, which are appropriate for animals,
• it is necessary for us to consider everyone’s happiness, including our own, as the standard by which to evaluate what is moral.4