Rs Ethics Utilitarianism

• Act Utilitarianism was founded by Bentham
• Bentham was a secular believer and came up with this approach in order to break away from status quo
• "the greatest happiness for the greatest number"
• uses the hedonic calculus to calculate the pleasure or pain from an action
• hedonic calculus measures intensity, duration etc
• focuses on universal hedonism (everyones pleasure)
• strength: Williams argues Act utilitarianism is its it is non-religious so applicable to everyone
• strength: Dewar says people automatically make utilitarian judgements, so its easy to follow
• strength: Act takes each individual action and focuses on the quantity of the happiness gained
• strength: Act is closer to understanding the complexity of human decision making since it doesn't follow rules
• This is Hedonistic (prioritising pleasure)
• teleological argument (looking at the end result of an action)
• Weakness: Sidewick argues pleasure is subjective, so questions how we decide between normal and higher pleasures
• Weakness: Epicurus argues that we only seek pleasure to avoid pain. So it is not rational
• Weakness: Mill argues that the hedonic calculus doesn't factor quality of pleasure
• Act Weakness: Hedonic calculus is too time consuming
• Mill modified the act utilitarianism with rule
• Mill found problems with Act since it justified horrific acts with high quantity of happiness but low quality
• Mill distinguished lower pleasures (sex, drinking and eating) from higher pleasures (social enjoyment, quality of life, education)
• Rule utilitarianism understands there are rules in place and aims to follow them for long term pleasure.
• Rule example: Eating a chocolate will be pleasurable in the moment, but in the long term it is not healthy
• Rule strength: Vardy would argue it is good because is solves problem of minority groups being discounted
• Rule strength: palmer argues Rule addresses the problems of act
• Weakness: Ross argues people are influenced by their own emotions and lead to a self-serving bias