Monday 10/14

Utilitarian Case Analysis

Readings

Texts

• J.S. Mill, "Utilitarianism", chapter 1 (from last time)
• J.S. Mill, "Utilitarianism", chapter 2 (from last time)

Notes

• Classical Utilitarianism (from last time)
• Is Happiness All that Matters? (from last time)
• Are Consequences All that Matter? (from last time)
• A (Partial) Map of UET (from last time)
• Utilitarianism (from last time)

Cases

• Body Dysmorphic Disorder
• Adolescent Breast Augmentation
• Smokin Ride
• Real Life Avatar
• Save the Rave
• Obesity as Child-Abuse

Synopsis

We began today by revisiting the various properties Classical Utilitarianism must have. We further argued that CU's assumption that happiness is the sole intrinsic good (eudaimonism) may be problematic, since it can be argued that happiness is not the sole intrinsic good. Indeed, it would seem that such things as honor and friendship are also intrinsic goods given our arguments. Responding to this objection often consists of changing the measure of utility. If happiness is not the sole intrinsic good, then we reject happiness as the measure of utility. Possible alternative measures are pleasure (hedonism), kinds of pleasure (qualified hedonism), best interests (idealism), or preferences (preferentialism). By changing how they measure utility, the utilitarian is able to meet the criticism that happiness is not the sole intrinsic good by developing what amount to alternative utilitarian ethical theories to CU. Utilitarianism thus shows us that the idea of utility is rich indeed.

The very notion that consequences are all that matters for morality may, however, pose problems the utilitarian, who cannot give up consequentialism without abandoning utilitarianism altogether, cannot escape.

That is, CU assumes that consequences are all that can be used to determine the morality of an action. Yet this is problematic because it gives rise to the Justice, Rights, and Backward-Looking Reasons arguments. The utilitarian response cannot be to jettison consequentialism, since that would be to give up on the very idea of UET.

It is important to understand the Justice, Rights, and Backward-Looking Reasons arguments so as to appreciate the utilitarian response. Specifically, we found that the utilitarian responds to these arguments by changing from an act-evaluative theory to a rule-evaluative theory. Thus, instead of calculating the utility of alternative actions, we calculate the utility of all actions done according to a specified rule. That is, instead of considering the consequences of a particular action, the rule-utilitarian looks instead at the consequences which accrue from consistently acting according to a particular rule or policy. Next time we'll practice applying various UET to some of the cases above.