PHILO QUIZ NOTES LETS FUCKING AJA VIDA

UTILITARIANISM

By John Stuart Mill

 A theory based on the principle that "actions are right in proportion as they tend to
promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness."
o Happiness = pleasure and absence of pain, pleasure can differ in quality and
quantity
o Pleasure rooted in one’s higher faculties should be weighted more heavily than
baser pleasure
o Achievements of goals and ends, virtuous living are part of happiness
 Utilitarianism coincides with “natural” sentiments that originate from our social nature

 Happiness is the sole basis of morality, and people never desire anything but happiness
o All others are means to happiness or included in definition of happiness
o Sentiment of justice is based on utility, and rights exist only because they are
necessary for human happiness
 Criticisms
o Does not provide adequate protection for individual rights – not everything can be
measured by same standard
o Happiness is more complex than by the theory
 Outline
o Chap 1-2. Intro and definition
o Chap 3. Ultimate sanctions/rewards utilitarianism can offer
o Chap 4. Methods of proving the validity of utilitarianism
o Chap 5. Connection between justice and utility; happiness found in justice

Other Utilitarianism Reading

 Basic Elements of Utilitarianism
o What you ought to do
 Identify options
 Identify consequences – must include the action itself and what it consists;
the whole possible world
 Evaluate outcome by how much well-being it contains
  Sum-ranking – one outcome is better than the other if and only if
it contains greater total sum of well-being
o Ask: what makes a person’s life better for him?
o What’s ‘greatest total sum of well-being’? = assign (+) and
(-) values and sum them
o This expresses impartiality. Intensity and duration of
pleasure matter, but not identity of person
 Perform the one with best outcome: if and only if its outcome is better
than outcome of any alternative = maximizing act-consequentialism
 It’s right (permissible) if outcome would not be worse
 Wrong if outcome would be worse
o Classical utilitarianism provides us with criterion of rightness, is a universal
moral theory (applied to all moral agents and situations), and act-oriented (looks
at values of outcome of individual acts)
o Utilitarianism = consequentialism (nothing but values of outcomes matter) +
welfarism (nothing but well-being matters)
o Classical utilitarianism = maximizing act-consequentialism + sum-ranking +
subjective conception of well being
 Historical background
o Bentham:
 Greatest happiness to the greatest number is the measure of right and
wrong  it matters how many people are benefited
 Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong
as they tend to promote the reverse of happiness
 Differs in classical: rightness comes in degree; one can be righter
o Sidgwick
 Utilitarianism is ethical theory, that the conduct which is objectively right
is which will produce greatest amount of happiness on the whole
 Values not explicitly mentioned
o Classical utilitarianism is better seen as a paradigm, ideal type
 Appeal of utilitarianism: theoretical virtues
o Clarity: clear implication for all moral choice
o Simplicity: consist of only one fundamental moral principle; need not worry how
to rank different principles
o Explanatory power: assigns normative stats (right/wrong) to all options
o Internal coherence: will never say that an action is both overall right/wrong
o Moral coherence: agrees with common sense
o Consistent prescriptions: always gives prescriptions that can be followed
 Alternatives to Utilitarianism: Competitors to utilitarianism
o Non-utilitarian consequentialism: judges actions by value of their outcome but
denies that well-being is all that matters
o Deontological theories: denies consequentialism
 Need not deny that outcome-value matters. They just think there are
other factors that are relevant to rightness
 Deals with how and why outcomes are brought about
  E.g. doing harm worse than allowing harm
o Kantianism
 Intentions and motives play a big role
 Universalization/categorical imperative
 Could you consistently and rationally will that everything thinks
it is OK to evade taxes?
 Steps
o Identify maxim
o Imagine that everyone Is acting your maxim
o Consider whether you could consistently and rationally will
that everyone acts
 Humanity principle
 It is wrong to treat a person merely as a means. It is right to treat a
person as an end
o Virtue ethics
 What kind of person ought I to be?
 An action is right for an agent if and only if a fully virtuous person
would do it
o What’s a virtuous person?
o What makes a character trait a virtue?
 An action is right for an agent if and only if the agent would do it
from a virtuous motive

ARISTOTLE VIRTUE THEORY

 Emphasizes an individual’s character
 Focus on being good people  right actions will follow naturally
 Eudaimonia = why we should become virtuous persons
 Proper functioning = everything is good to the extent it fulfils its functions and bad if it
doesn’t
o we need to grow be healthy + reason
 Strong influence on Aquinas
 Being virtuous is built in to us by nature
 Being virtuous is doing right thing, right time, right way, right amount, right people
o No need to be specific, you know what to do all the time
o You know how to handle yourself and get along
o You have good judgement, read a room, and know what’s right and when
 Virtue is between vice excess and deficiency = golden mean
 Virtues:
o Courage midpoint between cowardice and recklessness
 Finding the right way to act!
o Honesty is midpoint of failing to say things that need to be said and brutal
honesty
 Knowing how to deliver bad truths gracefully, bad news gently or offer
constructive criticism and not soul-crushing
o Generosity: stinginess and prodigality
  Giving when you have it to those who need it
 Virtue is a skill, way of living, somethbing learned via experience
 Virtue is a practical wisdom
 Character is developed through habituation – do things over and over again and
eventually it’ll become part of your character
 Moral exemplars – people who already know how to be virtuous; we are built to
recognize and emulate them
 If you are virtuous, you attain the pinnacle of humanity and achieve eudaimonia
o Life well-lived; human flourishing
o Striving, pushing yourself to limits, finding success
o Life full of happiness from achieving something difficult than just having it
handed to you