RE- Utilitarianism

• Utilitarianism - act

  Focuses on the outcome of individual acts to determine whether the act is right or wrong. Each situation is unique. When faced with a moral choice you must decide what action is going to lead to the greatest good. Act Utilitarianism is a normative ethical theory.
• Utilitarianism- Bentham ​


  Act utilitarianism was put​ forward by Jeremy Bentham. He lived at a time of great scientific, political and social change. He argued morality is just the attempt to bring about as much happiness as possible in the world. Goodness is simply the avoidance of pain and the pursuit of pleasure
• Utilitarianism - relativism 


  Its a relativistic theory. So there are no universal rules and each situation should be looked at independently as each situation is different.
• Utilitarianism - utility 


  Utilitarianism gets it's name from utility meaning usefulness. An action is right if it is useful in creating happiness. Utilitarianists believe humans are motivated by pleasure and pain. Utilitarianism believes happiness is the only good and pain the only evil. Our ultimate aim is to pursue pleasure and avoid pain.
• Utilitarianism - Principle

  The greatest good is the greatest pleasure or happiness and the least pain or sadness. When faced with a moral dilemma, utilitarianism says you should choose to act in way that brings about the maximum possible happiness for the most people. Pleasure can't be for one person alone.
• Utilitarianism - Teleological

  Utilitarianism is a teleological theory meaning it's concerned with the end purpose. In this case the goal is happiness. It is also a consequentialist theory. Whether something is right or wrong depends on the outcome .
• Utilitarianism - sums

  How do you work out how much happiness and action creates? Bentham proposed the Hedonic Calculus. Which weighs up the pain and pleasure created by the available moral actions to find the best option. It considered seven factors: purity, richness, intensity, nearness, certainty, extent, duration.
• Hedonic Calculus - (PRINCED)

  Purity- how pure is the pleasure ?

  Richness - is it a happiness that will enrich life?

  Intensity - how intense if the happiness ?

  Nearness - how near in time to us is the happiness ?

  Certainty - How sure are we the act will lead to happiness ?

  Extent - how many people are affected by the happiness ?

  Duration - is the happiness temporary or permanent ?
• utilitarianism - Mill

  John Stuart​ Mill put forward rule utilitarianism.

  Mill was raised to follow utilitarianism guidelines.
• Rule utilitarianism - Inequality

  Mill agreed completely with Benthams principle of utility, that an action is right if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number. But he saw a major weakness : it was only concerned with the quantity of happiness and individual action produced and this could ​lead to inequality. An individuals happiness could be ignored if the majority were happy. This is unfair.
• Rule utilitarianism - Deontological

  As a result of inequality, mill softened Benthams version of Utilitarianism. Certain actions inevitably lead to pleasure and so are intrinsically right. Some actions always bring pain
• Rule utilitarianism - rule

  Mill believed that following the principle of utility led to adopting certain rules that generally increased happiness and minimised pain. Mill concentrated on general principles. Mill based his rules on history and past experiences. For example, do not lie and do not cause injury to others. By introducing rules, mill believed he had removed the problem of inequality. 2 types of rule utilitarianism: strong rule - rules created by the principle of utility should never be broken and weak rule- in rare and extreme situations may be broken
• Rule utilitarianism - intellectual

  Not all pleasure is equal. Mill focused on the quality of pleasure. He developed a system of higher and lower pleasure, preferring the higher pleasure to the lower ones. Higher pleasure = intellectual. Lower pleasure = body . Intellectual pleasure includes things such as conversation with friends.
• Rule utilitarianism - body

  Include physical pleasure such as eating, sleeping. Must be satisfied before the higher pleasures can be pursued. A tired and hungry person cannot concentrate when reading a book.

  " It is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
• Act Utilitarianism - acronym

  ABRUPTS
• Rule utilitarianism - Acronym

  MIDRIB. HIPS
• Utilitarianism strengths - pursuit of happiness is practical 


  Seems reasonable that morality should be linked to the pursuit of happiness and the avoidance of pain. This is what we naturally do every day. Likely to be a popular theory.
• Utilitarianism strength - it emphasizes the consequences of an action

  It's natural for us to do. We naturally tend to do the actions which will bring the best result.
• Utilitarianism strength - democratic

  Promotes general happiness. It's the utilitarian influence, made governments try and make the majority of their population happy. Utilitarianism allows us great freedom to do as we want.
• Utilitarianism strength - flexible


  What's right or wrong can change depending on the circumstances. Utilitarianism therefore concentrates on real life situations. Just because abortion is wrong in Mary's case doesn't mean it's wrong for Jane. It just depends on the consequences ​. There is flexibility in the theory which allows room for commonsense judgements.
• Utilitarianism weakness - consequences of an action cannot be accurately predicted


  How can you be certain if an outcome of an action ? You can't guarantee what an outcome will be. And how do you decide when

  an actions leads to both pleasure and pain
• Utilitarianism weakness - happiness is subjective


  Everyone has different ideas of pleasure. One persons pleasure is anothers pain. Theres no consistency as there's no agreement on what happiness is. What is your idea of happiness actually hurts you.
• Utilitarianism weakness - it will lead to moral chaos

  No universal and absolute rules so can lead to moral chaos as we all persue our own idea of happiness. Theres no true community. How do we decide when our ideas of happiness clash?. Some acts are intrinsically right or wrong regardless of the outcome
• Utilitarianism weakness - it is impractical 


  Does not work when trying to run society. For example by the time you have gone through the seven factors the muggers have left. You don't have time to go through seven factors in a real life dilemma. Theory doesn't work.