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Legal Philo Notes Chapter 1
Legal Philo Notes Chapter 1
- Wittgenstein: Just because you make use of a concept of a thought in language doesn’t mean it has
sense.
o Impurity in Language – Why is language full of impurities: so many thoughts brought to you by
language that you think is real.
o Once you purify your language, you purify your thoughts.
o Past philosophers made a huge mistake; ideas brought about does not have meaning at all or do
you understand what it means.
o In order for a thing to have meaning, it must pass the 3 Tests: Verification, Correspondence, &
Falsification – gives sense or meaning to our sentences.
o Treat other philosophers as literature.
- Purists = Atheism
Tractatus
1. Verified
2. Correspondence
3. Falsiability
Philosophical Investigation
1. According to Bentham, what are the causes of human action? What is the principle of utility?
According to Bentham, pleasure and pain govern not only how human beings act but also how human beings ought
to act.
The principle of utility or the principle of utilitarianism : I ought do that act which will bring about the greatest
happiness (pleasure) for the greatest number of persons (the community).
2. Explain what Bentham means by the principle of asceticism. Is this principle related to the principle of sympathy
and antipathy? Why does Bentham think that these principles lead to inconsistent application and undue
punishment?
The principle of asceticism is the inverse of the principle of utility: I ought do that act which will bring about the least
happiness (pleasure) for the greatest number of persons. The principle is not consistently used because it opposes
the natural influences of pleasure and pain.
The principle of sympathy and antipathy is the reliance on feelings for conscience for moral decisions. We judge an
action as right or wrong on the basis of how we feel about it or our intuition or conscience. Since our feelings are
not objective, they tend to be inconsistent and involve emotional application.
3. Can pleasure be quantified? Explain whether you think the use of the hedonistic calculus for the individual and
for society is feasible.
Bentham attempts to quantify pleasures in the hedonistic calculus. Some of the factors are quantifiable such as
duration, certainty, and extent, but most of the factors are not quantifiable. There may well be different kinds of
pleasures and threshold of pleasures. Propinquity can be established by indifference curves but this would be an
attempt to quantify feelings.
4. What does Bentham mean when he explains that motives are neither bad nor good? Why doesn't Bentham think
that evil motives can be productive of over-all good? Explain his analysis of motives.
Bentham does not think motives or intentions are an exception to his result based theory. For Bentham, motives can
only be considered good or bad based on their results of being productive of happiness or unhappiness.. ("Beauty is
as beauty does.")
When we look at motives which are said to be bad, the motives are so named as to include the effects as "packed in
with" or as being part of the motive. Thus, the motive is named by its effects. Consider Russell's conjugation: "I
reconsider, you change your mind, and he goes back on his word."
Motives considered apart from the effects are neither bad nor good in themselves.
Incommensurability – No person can judge within the meaning is True or False because situations are different at
the time the words are uttered.
Language = Games
If words have different meaning, does it mean you cannot talk about it? NO, family resemblance
Family Resemblances
Private Language
- It is impossible; because its rules are parasitic to other language.
UTILITARIANISM
- Jeremy Bentham – “Greatest good for the greatest number of people” and John Stuart Mill – “Quality of
pleasure it brings to an individual”
- MOB RULE
Immanuel Kahnt
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
CONDITIONAL IMPERATIVE
Apraiori – Before you experience, you already know based on sole reason
o Moral Laws
Classical approach – Man is a rational being, he should be responsible for his acts
Humanist/Positivist approach – Focus is the man himself; man is but a victim of his own environment
o What makes man commit crimes are not because of the factors present in his society.
Eclectic/Mixed approach – Bentham: There are realities in life that produce pains like crimes and it should be
prevented through enacting laws.
o As long as the law suppresses the crime, it is good.
Categorical Imperative – Kahnt: For their own sake’s regardless of the condition | Laws should not be based on
a conditional imperative | The law is there because killing itself is wrong.