Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Overview of Utilitarianism
- Jeremy Bentham
- "father of Utilitarianism"
- An English philosopher and social
reformist who originally came up with the
moral principle of utilitarianism
- ‘the principles of morals
and legislation’
- He believed that
humans are motivated
by pleasure and pain
- 'Hedonist'
- John Stuart Mill
- (1806 - 73)
- considered to be one
of the greatest
philosophers of the
19th century
- Jeremy Bethams Godson
- he believed Quality is
more important than
quantity
- pleasures of the mind
- reading
- Appreciation of art
- Music
- pleasures of the body
- hunger
- gratification
- sleeping
- Act Utilitarianism
- Definition
- Act Utilitarianism: a version of Utilitarianism
according to which the rightness of wrongness of
individual acts are calculated by the amount of
happiness resulting from these acts
- The principle of utility must
be applied in each individual
situation
- It is the value of the consequences that count
- Is a lot more flexible than other
types of Utilitarianism
- However it has the potential
to justify anything and any
situation
- Its very impractical and time
consuming to have to measure
every single moral choice
- Rule Utilitarianism
- "focuses on general rules that
everyone should follow to bring
about the greatest good for that
community"
- Rule Utilitarianism: a version of
utilitarianism in which general rules are
assessed for the happiness-making
properties rather than individual decisions
- deontological
- mainly follows laws and has set rules and
codes that everyone must stick to no matter
what the situation is
- John Stuart Mill
- John Austin (1790-1859)
- Hedonic calculus
- "weighs up the pain and pleasure
generated by the available moral
actions to find the best options"
- There are seven factors
Anlagen:
- The hedonic calculus weighs
things up by how much pleasure
or pain is calculated.
- Bentham considers how strong the
pain or pleasure is, how long it will
last and the number of people it
affects
- The action that leads to the ‘best
consequence’ by using this measure is
the morally correct one
- Definition
- noun: utilitarianism - the doctrine that actions
are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a
majority
- Preference Utilitarianism
- preference utilitarianism: a utilitarian theory
interested in the best consequences for those
involved rather than what creates the most
pleasure and least pain
- peter singer (1946-)