Utilitarianism short answer questions
Briefly outline how a rule utilitarian would make a moral decision (5) - ANS-• rule utilitarian
would work what acts generally make people happy, and then from that create a rule that if
everyone follows will maximise happiness
• we can use the example of the colloseum to help understand how they'd make a moral
decision
• thousands of spectators gain pleasure from watching two men fight to the death
• BUT generally we would say killing brings about more pain than pleasure
• from this the rule 'dont kill' can be created
• after working out this rule, rule utilitarians would say a collesum is morally wrong.
Briefly outline Mill's proof of utilitarianism (5) - ANS-•known as the greatest happiness principle
•goes as follows:
•something is visible if it can actually be seen
• in the same way, something is desirable if it is desired
• everyone desires their own happiness
• therefore, everyone's happiness is desirable
• the general happiness is desirable
• if each person's happiness is good to that person, then that means the general happiness is
good to all people
• therefore, happiness is the only good
• principle attempts to show that we desire happiness, and therefore happiness is the only good.
briefly outline one issue with calculation for Bentham's hedonic calculus (5) - ANS-• hedonic
calculus = Bentham's system for calculating moral worth
• one of his main ideas for Act utilitarianism
• used to work out how much pleasure/pain an action will cause
• for example, the extent (number of people affected) of the pleasure/pain an action causes is
calculated in the hedonic calculus
• one issue with calculation = to what extent we should aim for average or total happiness
• which ones better: large population who are less happy on average, or small population with a
lower total happiness, but who are more happy on average?
• the calculus does not account for this
briefly outline the criticism that utilitarianism ignores the moral integrity of the individual (5) -
ANS-•to have personal integrity, you need to have things you won't do (X)
•utilitarianism will always be able to create a situation where X is the right thing to do
• this means that utilitarianism undermines our personal integrity
• issue can be highlighted with the example of the tribe and the botanist
• botanist who is exploring comes across tribe who have just captured their enemies
, • chief of the tribe makes botanist his guest of honour, and gives him a choice - kill one of the
capture enemies and the rest will go free OR don't kill one and the chief will kill them all
• utilitarianism would say the best thing to do is to kill the one to save the rest
• but this undermines botanists moral integrity - he's forced to cross a line he doesn't want to
cross.
briefly outline the difference act and rule utilitarianism (5) - ANS-Act = quantative (aims to
maximise pleasure) hedonistic
•Rule = qualative (aims to gain the highest quality pleasure) hedonistic
•Act - allows any action to be good if it maximises happiness
•Rule - only allows actions to be good if it follows a rule that generally maximises happiness.
briefly outline the hedonic calculus (5) - ANS-• Bentham's system for calculating moral worth
• can be outlined as follows:
• intensity
• duration
• certainty
• remoteness
• fecundity
• purity
• extent
• to work out which action to pick in a situation, add up the pleasure points and subtract the pain
points - pick the action which has more pleasure points
• act utilitarianism uses hedonic calculus
Briefly outline the problem that utilitarianism ignores the intentions of the individual when making
a moral decision (5) - ANS-•Act utilitarianism faces this issue because it only focuses on the
consequences of an action, not the motive
• use the example of someone going to visit their gran every day, just so they can be put in the
will when the gran dies.
• if you look at the consequences - the gran is made happy by their grandchild visiting them, and
the grandchild is made happy by being put in the will - utilitarianism would rule this a good
action
• once you look at the motives though, it's clear to see we wouldn't want to call this action
morally good anymore.
briefly outline why some are critical of utilitarianism for not considering individual liberty and
rights (5) - ANS-•people are critical of utilitarianism for not considering these values because it
can lead to counter intuitive results
•Act utilitarians say the only reason individual liberty/rights have value is as a side effect to
bringing about more pleasure
•but many argue that these values have their own moral worth
• use example of angry mob demanding justice for a murder
• police might scapegoat an innocent man just to calm and bring happiness to the mob
Briefly outline how a rule utilitarian would make a moral decision (5) - ANS-• rule utilitarian
would work what acts generally make people happy, and then from that create a rule that if
everyone follows will maximise happiness
• we can use the example of the colloseum to help understand how they'd make a moral
decision
• thousands of spectators gain pleasure from watching two men fight to the death
• BUT generally we would say killing brings about more pain than pleasure
• from this the rule 'dont kill' can be created
• after working out this rule, rule utilitarians would say a collesum is morally wrong.
Briefly outline Mill's proof of utilitarianism (5) - ANS-•known as the greatest happiness principle
•goes as follows:
•something is visible if it can actually be seen
• in the same way, something is desirable if it is desired
• everyone desires their own happiness
• therefore, everyone's happiness is desirable
• the general happiness is desirable
• if each person's happiness is good to that person, then that means the general happiness is
good to all people
• therefore, happiness is the only good
• principle attempts to show that we desire happiness, and therefore happiness is the only good.
briefly outline one issue with calculation for Bentham's hedonic calculus (5) - ANS-• hedonic
calculus = Bentham's system for calculating moral worth
• one of his main ideas for Act utilitarianism
• used to work out how much pleasure/pain an action will cause
• for example, the extent (number of people affected) of the pleasure/pain an action causes is
calculated in the hedonic calculus
• one issue with calculation = to what extent we should aim for average or total happiness
• which ones better: large population who are less happy on average, or small population with a
lower total happiness, but who are more happy on average?
• the calculus does not account for this
briefly outline the criticism that utilitarianism ignores the moral integrity of the individual (5) -
ANS-•to have personal integrity, you need to have things you won't do (X)
•utilitarianism will always be able to create a situation where X is the right thing to do
• this means that utilitarianism undermines our personal integrity
• issue can be highlighted with the example of the tribe and the botanist
• botanist who is exploring comes across tribe who have just captured their enemies
, • chief of the tribe makes botanist his guest of honour, and gives him a choice - kill one of the
capture enemies and the rest will go free OR don't kill one and the chief will kill them all
• utilitarianism would say the best thing to do is to kill the one to save the rest
• but this undermines botanists moral integrity - he's forced to cross a line he doesn't want to
cross.
briefly outline the difference act and rule utilitarianism (5) - ANS-Act = quantative (aims to
maximise pleasure) hedonistic
•Rule = qualative (aims to gain the highest quality pleasure) hedonistic
•Act - allows any action to be good if it maximises happiness
•Rule - only allows actions to be good if it follows a rule that generally maximises happiness.
briefly outline the hedonic calculus (5) - ANS-• Bentham's system for calculating moral worth
• can be outlined as follows:
• intensity
• duration
• certainty
• remoteness
• fecundity
• purity
• extent
• to work out which action to pick in a situation, add up the pleasure points and subtract the pain
points - pick the action which has more pleasure points
• act utilitarianism uses hedonic calculus
Briefly outline the problem that utilitarianism ignores the intentions of the individual when making
a moral decision (5) - ANS-•Act utilitarianism faces this issue because it only focuses on the
consequences of an action, not the motive
• use the example of someone going to visit their gran every day, just so they can be put in the
will when the gran dies.
• if you look at the consequences - the gran is made happy by their grandchild visiting them, and
the grandchild is made happy by being put in the will - utilitarianism would rule this a good
action
• once you look at the motives though, it's clear to see we wouldn't want to call this action
morally good anymore.
briefly outline why some are critical of utilitarianism for not considering individual liberty and
rights (5) - ANS-•people are critical of utilitarianism for not considering these values because it
can lead to counter intuitive results
•Act utilitarians say the only reason individual liberty/rights have value is as a side effect to
bringing about more pleasure
•but many argue that these values have their own moral worth
• use example of angry mob demanding justice for a murder
• police might scapegoat an innocent man just to calm and bring happiness to the mob
