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Utilitarianism - Introduction to Philosophy - Lecture Slides, Slides of Philosophy

Alliance UniversityPhilosophy

Its the important key points of lecture slides of Introduction to Philosophy are:Utilitarianism, Aggregate Happiness, Moral Community, Important Responses, Act Utilitarians, Rule Utilitarians, Greatest Happiness Principle, Utilitarian Ethics, Moral Principle, Perceived Obligation

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2012/2013

Uploaded on 01/08/2013

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Utilitarianism
•Note also that Mill does judge types or classes
of action, and the feelings giving rise to them,
relative to the Greatest Happiness Principle.
One cannot appropriately use an appeal to
utility for one’s own benefit if one’s action is
clearly tied to the diminishment of the
aggregate happiness of the whole ... or the
relevant part of the moral community. Utility is
not mere expediency (FP, p.691).
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Utilitarianism

  • Note also that Mill does judge types or classes of action, and the feelings giving rise to them, relative to the Greatest Happiness Principle. One cannot appropriately use an appeal to utility for one’s own benefit if one’s action is clearly tied to the diminishment of the aggregate happiness of the whole ... or the relevant part of the moral community. Utility is not mere expediency ( FP , p.691).

Utilitarianism : Chapter Two

  • To the objection that we don’t have enough time to judge the merits (i.e. the consequence to the aggregate happiness of the moral community) of each action we take Mill offers two important responses ( FP , p.692).
  • (1) The Utilitarian is reasonably supposing that given the already extensive experience of humanity, we have a rich repository of knowledge about what types of actions are conducive to happiness and what are not ( FP , p.692).
  • (2) The Utilitarian need not commit themselves to first testing each individual action against the Greatest Happiness Principle before acting ( FP , p.692).

Utilitarianism : Chapter Two

  • Rule Utilitarianism allows for the development of rules in one context which can be used to decide the right and the wrong in relevantly similar moral contexts, thus avoiding worries about the time available to the moral agent to decide what is, or is not, the right thing to do ( FP , pp.692-93).
  • Mill was undoubtedly a Rule Utilitarian.

Utilitarianism : Chapter Three

  • In this chapter Mill raises a question about the sanction for the greatest happiness principle, or Utilitarian ethics more generally.
  • By sanction Mill means something like either the motives for obeying a given moral principle, or the source (legal, social or biological) for the perceived obligation to obey it ( FP , p.693).

Utilitarianism : Chapter Three

  • Mill suggests that the inner experience of evidency, or the intrinsic worth of a rule, principle, or moral outlook, now enjoyed by proscriptions against theft or murder, is more often than not grounded in custom or socialization.
  • The evidence for such a claim partially lies in what those with differing backgrounds hold to be evident or obviously obligatory.
  • Also, almost any principle of action or moral principle can be inculcated with the right external sanctions and educational regimen.
  • For Utilitarianism to enjoy such sanctions there is merely a need for changes in education and those social institutions causally responsible for our socialization ( FP , p.694).

Utilitarianism : Chapter Three -

External and Internal sanctions

  • ‘ External sanction ’ refers to those social, legal or physical factors which generate pressure on a given moral agent to act in accordance with certain rules of conduct or behavior.
  • Examples of external sanctions include the fear of God’s wrath in certain religious traditions, or the fear of punishment under the law ( FP , p.694).

Utilitarianism : Chapter Three - External and Internal sanctions

  • ‘ Internal sanction ’ refers to those feelings which arise in contexts where one is about to violate, or already has violated, one’s moral duty ( FP , p.694).
  • These inner feelings can find their source in our religious traditions, from our sympathy with others, our love of another, et cetera ( FP , pp.694-95).
  • The ultimate inner sanction, for Mill, is our conscience ( FP , p.694).
  • Conscience is “a feeling in our own mind; a pain ... attendant on violation of duty” ( FP , p.694). It is also “disinterested, and .... [connected] with the pure idea of duty” ( FP , p.694).
  • By ‘pain’ Mill means something akin to remorse or guilt ( FP , p.694).

Utilitarianism : Chapter Three - External and Internal sanctions Will Mill’s emphasis on feeling as a sanction relevant to moral living undermine, rather than strengthen, an individual’s propensity to obey moral principles or laws? Mill answers this question in the negative for the following reasons. (1) Such a subjective feeling as he has highlighted (e.g. conscience) motivates even those moral agents who believe in a transcendental ground of morality (he has folks like Kant in mind here). After all, a mere belief in a transcendental ground of morality is causally ineffectual in moving someone to action, or to alternative actions than the one under consideration. What gives such a belief causal efficacy is the accompanying feeling regarding its moral worth ( FP , p.695).

Utilitarianism : Chapter Three -

External and Internal sanctions

  • It is to be expected, suggests Mill, that (i) when the principles inculcated are too ‘foreign’ (i.e. appear too arbitrary) to the relevant individual, or (ii) when the culture advances beyond the need of them, the efficacy of inculcation will weaken, perhaps substantially, over time, or under the pressure of philosophical scrutiny ( FP , p.696).

Utilitarianism : Chapter Three - External and Internal sanctions

  • Mill believes that Utilitarianism will not fall victim to either of these factors because of, among other things, the importance of social feeling to humans living in society ( FP , p.696).
  • By ‘social feeling’ Mill means something like the regard we give to the interests (or happiness) of others and the importance we attach to such a regard.
  • “The social state is at once so natural, so necessary, and so habitual to man, that, except in some unusual circumstances or by an effort of voluntary abstraction, he never conceives of himself otherwise than as a member of a body” ( FP , p.696). Docsity.com

Utilitarianism : Chapter Three -

External and Internal sanctions

  • Such a happenstance, maintains Mill, will only work in favor of Utilitarianism, or any system of morality which emphasizes the importance of maximizing the aggregate good of the relevant populace ( FP , p.697).

Utilitarianism : Chapter Four

  • It is in the fourth chapter that Mill finally offers a ‘proof’ of Utilitarianism or, more particularly, the Greatest Happiness Principle ( FP , p.698).
  • A question to keep in mind is the one he raises in the second paragraph: “What ought to be required of this doctrine - what conditions is it requisite that the doctrine should fulfill - to make good its claim to be believed?” ( FP , p.698).
  • This is a question applicable to any theory of morality.

Utilitarianism : Chapter Four - A Defense

  • (1) An object can be proved visible if and only if it is seen.
  • (2) A sound can be proved audible if and only if it is heard.
  • (3) In like fashion, something is proved desirable if and only if it is desired.
  • (4) Each person, so far as she thinks it is possible, desires her own happiness
  • (5) It is a general fact about the desirability of happiness that everyone desires their happiness.
  • (6) Given (4) and (5), it is the case that general happiness is desired by the aggregate of persons.
  • (7) Given (3) and (6), it is the case that general happiness is desirable. Docsity.com

Utilitarianism : Chapter Four - A

Defense

  • (8) If something is desirable it is a good.
  • (9) Given (7) and (8), general happiness is a good.
  • (10) If x is a good, then it is an end of conduct.
  • (11) If x is an end of conduct, it is one of the criteria of morality.
  • (12) Given (9) through (11), happiness is one of the criteria of morality ( FP , pp.698-99).