Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 8 views

    Utilitarianism: "The Greatest Happiness For The Greatest Number"

    Uploaded by

    Alton Jurah
    Utilitarianism aims to maximize happiness for the greatest number of people. It holds that happiness is the only intrinsic good and one should sacrifice personal desires to help others. Jeremy Bentham proposed a "hedonic calculus" to quantify pleasure and pain, while John Stuart Mill believed some pleasures are of higher quality than others, such as intellectual pleasures. Situation ethics says ethical decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis rather than by absolute rules. The only intrinsic good is love - acting in love toward others is most important. Joseph Fletcher applied this approach to ethics from a Christian perspective, saying love for one's neighbor is the guiding principle above rules.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content

    You might also like

    Utilitarianism: "The Greatest Happiness For The Greatest Number"

    Uploaded by

    Alton Jurah
    8 views8 pages
    Utilitarianism aims to maximize happiness for the greatest number of people. It holds that happiness is the only intrinsic good and one should sacrifice personal desires to help others. Jeremy Bentham proposed a "hedonic calculus" to quantify pleasure and pain, while John Stuart Mill believed some pleasures are of higher quality than others, such as intellectual pleasures. Situation ethics says ethical decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis rather than by absolute rules. The only intrinsic good is love - acting in love toward others is most important. Joseph Fletcher applied this approach to ethics from a Christian perspective, saying love for one's neighbor is the guiding principle above rules.

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    utilitarianism-130805141735-phpapp02

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    Utilitarianism aims to maximize happiness for the greatest number of people. It holds that happiness is the only intrinsic good and one should sacrifice personal desires to help others. Jeremy Bentham proposed a "hedonic calculus" to quantify pleasure and pain, while John Stuart Mill believed some pleasures are of higher quality than others, such as intellectual pleasures. Situation ethics says ethical decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis rather than by absolute rules. The only intrinsic good is love - acting in love toward others is most important. Joseph Fletcher applied this approach to ethics from a Christian perspective, saying love for one's neighbor is the guiding principle above rules.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    8 views8 pages

    Utilitarianism: "The Greatest Happiness For The Greatest Number"

    Uploaded by

    Alton Jurah
    Utilitarianism aims to maximize happiness for the greatest number of people. It holds that happiness is the only intrinsic good and one should sacrifice personal desires to help others. Jeremy Bentham proposed a "hedonic calculus" to quantify pleasure and pain, while John Stuart Mill believed some pleasures are of higher quality than others, such as intellectual pleasures. Situation ethics says ethical decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis rather than by absolute rules. The only intrinsic good is love - acting in love toward others is most important. Joseph Fletcher applied this approach to ethics from a Christian perspective, saying love for one's neighbor is the guiding principle above rules.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 8

    Utilitarianism

    “The greatest happiness for the greatest number”


    Basic statements
    • Happiness is the only thing that is good in itself
    • It is moral to sacrifice one’s desires to help the “greatest number”
    happiness.
    • Democracy?
    Quantitative Utilitarianism
    • Jeremy Bentham
    • Hedonic calculus
    • Its intensity 
    • Its duration
    • Its certainty or uncertainty
    • Its nearness or remoteness how wide
    ranging is it?
    • Its ability to continue. How continuous is
    the pleasure?
    • Its purity – the chance it has of not
    producing the opposite .
    • Who is affected by it?
    Qualitative Utilitarianism
    • John Stuart Mill 1806 – 1873
    • Mill rejected Bentham’s use of the
    Hedonic Calculus. In his view some
    pleasures are of a higher quality than
    others. 
    • higher pleasures – intellectual
    But pleasures of the body are lower
    pleasures – appetite.
    Situation Ethics
    “All you need is love”
    Basic Statements
    • It is moral to set aside a rule if we have a good reason for
    doing so.
    • Ethical decisions should follow flexible guidelines rather than
    absolute rules, and be taken on a case by case basis.
    • Only one thing is intrinsically good: love.
    • Doing good is a matter of acting in love. All we need is love.
    A christian approach
    • Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991)
    • Moral judgments are decisions, not conclusions
    • Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely,
    love: nothing else
    • Love "wills the neighbour's good" [desires the
    best for our neighbour] whether we like them
    or not
    • Love and justice are the same, for justice is love
    distributed
    • The rightness depends on many factors
    • Love as “agape”
    • Rules are not to guide but to illuminate.
    Essay
    • Is it OK to approve same-sex marriage and stem cell studies?
    • According to your answer, do you consider yourself a
    utilitarian/situational ethicists?

    You might also like