Utilitarianism Bentham

PPT 6 Hedonic Act Utilitarianism

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Pig’s Philosophy

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Bentham’s Hedonic Theory
• Quantitative Pleasure
• “Pushpin as Good as Poetry”
• Equality principle
• Hedonic calculus (Purity, extent, fecundity meaning,
will it lead on to other pleasures? etc)

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Science and Morality
• Utilitarians are against natural law
• A rational empirical test
• Social Policy eg Business Ethics – suffering of Enron employees and
shareholders
• After Enron scandal in 2003 George Bush passes new laws with tougher
financial disclosure rules
• Enron contributed $623,000 to Bush election campaign

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George Bush
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6mquz_XYVs

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Problem of the Pleasure
Machine
• Robert Nozick’s Pleasure Machine
• “This calls up a pleasant picture of the
voluptuary of the future, a bald-headed man
with a number of electrodes protruding from
his skull, one to give the physical pleasure of
sex, one for eating, one for drinking, and so
on. Now is this the sort of life our ethical
planning should culminate in?” (JCC Smart
1994:19).

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What’s wrong with Passive Pleasure
• Passive Pleasure v Active
• Learning a musical instrument
• Habits/character
• Greek concern- ethikos (character)

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Essay skill
• “Bentham’s philosophy is a pig’s philosophy”. Discuss
• Thomas Carlyle

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