Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
1 Introduction
Utilitarianism
normative
is
moral
an
appealing
theory,
with
and
plenty
highly
of
respected
contemporary
From Maxley Brooke (1924). Coin Games and Puzzles. Dover: New York. p. 65
moral
philosophers
the
most
famous
is
variously
satisfaction
of
understood
preferences
as
(there
happiness,
are
other
or
ways
the
of
is
the
outcome
that
determines
the
rightness
or
wrongness of an action).
profits
and
minimise
costs.
Businesses
are
(Bentham,
for
instance,
thought
capital
1. Your sensitive friend Jennifer has just bought a new dress. She looks fairly
awful in it. However, shell be wearing it among friends (at a wedding) and
shes already bought it and worn it so cannot return it to the shop or
afford to buy another. She asks you for your opinion. Should you tell her it
looks great or tell her the truth?
2. You
are
in
country
where
euthanasia
(mercy
killing)
is
legal
She wishes her misery to end but is unable to kill herself. She requests
that you kill her by turning off her life support machine.
4. You are the president of the USA. You know a bomb has been planted
somewhere in a busy shopping precinct, but you have no idea which one.
The terrorist responsible for planting the bomb has been caught but he is
not giving up any information. Your secret services want to be given
permission to administer a truth-drug to him. The drug is completely
reliable. The only problem is the drug has a side effect: it induces tortuous
suffering for several hours. Should you give the go ahead?
4 Intuitively plausible?
But
perhaps
there
are
other
cases
where
applying
1. You need a root canal filling in a tooth. There are two dentists in town.
Both are equally professional and equally competent (you can trust them
both only to give you treatment you really need). However, one of these
dentists is a sadist and derives pleasure from the discomfort of others.
(Rest assured, his professionalism prevents him from subjecting patients
to any unnecessary pain but root canals involve some unavoidable
discomfort). So, your level of discomfort will be the same whichever
dentist you visit. If youre a Utilitarian, which dentist ought you to visit?
3. You have $15 surplus money. You could go to the cinema and watch the
latest blockbuster or you could donate the money to a charity working in
the third-world. If you spend the $15 on yourself, youll derive some
pleasure from watching the film. But if you donate the $15 to charity itll
alleviate a considerable amount of suffering. In fact, shouldnt you give
all of your spare money away and furthermore, shouldnt you spend all
of your spare time ministering to the poor and needy? Wouldnt that be a
more utile use of your time?
5 Indirect utilitarianism
Are
the
judgements
you
reached
in
the
above
cases
to each
case.
But
perhaps
we
(dont
lie,
dont
punish
the
innocent,
dont
Reading:
Ryder,
R.
(2009).
Painism
versus
6 Utility
7 Hedonistic utilitarianism
But
what
Jeremy
does
Bentham
happiness
consist
(1748-1832)
in?
thought
The
that
Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any
experience you desired. Superduper neuro-psychologists could stimulate
your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel,
or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be
floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug
into this machine for life, pre-programming your lifes experiences? If you
are worried about missing out on desirable experiences, we can suppose
that business enterprises have researched thoroughly the lives of many
others. You can pick and choose from their large smorgasbord of such
experiences, selecting your lifes experiences for, say, the next to yours.
Of course, while in the tank you wont know that youre there; youll think
it is all actually happening. Others can also plug in to have the experiences
they want, so theres no need to stay unplugged to serve them. Ignore
problems such as who will service the machines if everyone plugs in. Would
you plug in?2
Robert Nozick (1974). Anarchy State and Utopia. Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, pp. 42-43
8 Preference utilitarianism
So, our life is going maximally well when all our preferences
are being met. Note: It isnt the satisfaction that comes from
having ones preferences met that makes ones life go better
(not on the preference-satisfaction account anyway). It is
just the brute fact that our preferences are being met.
preferences
to
actually
do
the
things
we
are
this
or
not.)
For
this
reason
some
think
the
view
while
accommodating
most
peoples
9 Still a contender
We
havent
finished
with
utilitarianism
yet.
Well
be
But
despite
all
the
criticisms
that
are
made
against
insensitive.
themselves
to
Nevertheless
get
distracted
utilitarians
by
dont
irrelevancies
allow
such
as
moral
philosophers
to
highlight
what
we
now
So
historically
utilitarianism
has
provided