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C H A P T E R 28

UTILITARIANISM

E T H I C S

AUGUSTE COMTE

(1798–1857)

AUGUSTE COMTE
(1798–1857)

French founder of
sociology and positivism.

LIFE

Comte was a French positivist philosopher, and a founder of sociology.

He also created the term altruism.

He was an agnostic, and he created a religion of humanity.

He believed theism and atheism are metaphysical dogma. (463)

Comte studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris.

He never attained a teaching position.

Comte married Caroline Massin; they divorced in 1842.

PHILOSOPHY of POSITIVISM

1. A philosophy for science.
Comte's positivism is Hume's science.

"No proposition that is not finally reducible to the enunciation of a fact, particular or general, can offer any real and intelligible meaning." (462)

2. The purpose of knowledge is power.
Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is pointless.

3. Like an individual society goes through three stages. 462

CHILD	SOCIETY
a. Personification - giving personality to toys	Theology - giving personality to reality - From animism, to polytheism, to monotheism
b. Adolescence	Metaphysics
c. Adulthood	Positivism - Science

Lawhead thinks this is historically incorrect. For example science and philosophy started with Thales, and some scientists are philosophers and theologians, but for Comte that science is mixed up with metaphysics. We are not yet at the positivist stage.

In Lawheads defense this is a naive view of science.

ETHICS

TRAIN DILEMMA I

Five people are working on a train track while a train behind them approaches. You can't gain their attention, but you can pull a lever, and divert the train to a track where one person is working. What should you do?

1. Do nothing, and five people die.

2. Pull the lever, and one person dies.

TRAIN DILEMMA II

Five people are working on a train track while a train behind them approaches. You can't gain their attention. You are standing on a bridge, with another guy. What do you do?

1. Do nothing, and five people die.

2. Push the guy off the bridge, and one person dies.

percent

FORD PINTO - BUSINESS ETHICS

FORD PINTO MADNESS

PROBLEM:

The gas tank was vulnerable.
180 potential deaths
180 burn injuries
2,100 burned vehicles

SOLUTION:

Recall 12,500,000 cars x $11.00 per car = $137,000,000.

DECISION:

$200,000 Value of Life x 180 deaths = 36,000,000
$67,000 - injuries x 180 = 12,060,000
$700 x 2,100 vehicles = 1,470,000
$36,000,000 + $12,060,000 + $1,470,000 = $49,530,000

Recall is more than doing nothing - so ... ?

THE MAS*H DILEMMA

MASH

In the episode a woman suffocates her baby to save a bus load of people.

SOPHIE'S CHOICE

JEREMY BENTHAM
(1748–1832)

English

Panopticon Blueprint 1791

PANOPTICON PRISON

This design allows the guards to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without them knowing when they are being watched. This reduces personnel, and creates a sense of an omniscience viewer.

LIFE

Born in London.

At 12 he studied law at Queens College.

His body is on display at the University of London, and it's present at all board meetings - a condition of his will.

Bentham and James Mill educated John Stuart Mill

PHILOSOPHY

1. Pleasure and pain drive all actions.

2. An act is moral because the consequences promote pleasure.
   An act is immoral because the consequences promote pain.
   Punishment is a necessary evil.
   Ignore the intensions.

3. The Principle of Utility:
Everyone is morally obligated to promote the greatest
happiness of the greatest amount of people.

JOHN STUART MILL
(1806-1873)

British

John Stuart Mill and Helen Taylor
On Liberty was a collaborative effort between Mill and Taylor.

LIFE

His father James and Jeremy Bentham taught him.

He read all the Greek Classics by 14.

He became severely depressed.

Mill and Helen Taylor collaborated on many works.

They were feminists.

PHILOSOPHY

Utilitarianism

1. Ethics is grounded in our feelings of mankind.

2. Happiness is pleasure and the absence of pain.
   Ethics based on pleasure is hedonism.
   Unhappiness is plain and the absence of pleasure.
   Pleasure is the relief of pain.
   People often choose immediate pleasure over greater pleasure.
   Socratic counter example: "To know the good is to do the good."

3. Only happiness is a desired end.
    Everything else is desirable as a means to that end.
    It is a first principle (incapable of proof).

4. Quality & quantity must be considered. (Epicurus)
    Bentham only considered quantity.

"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied." (470)

5. The consequences make acts good or bad (Teleological).

6. Good acts produce the greatest happiness for the greatest
number of people.
Fallacy of composition:

We cannot infers that something is true of the whole because it is true of its part. For example: This athlete is the best in the NFL; therefore his team is the best in the NFL. We also can't infer that if a team is the best in the NFL, then a player of that team must be the best in the NFL.

PHILOSOPHY

On Liberty

   Mill argued for autonomy, and against victimless crimes. 473
   Free speech should be allowed unless it causes harm.
   He argued against censorship.

"That the only purpose for which power can be rightly exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others." (L1 / 472)

Arguments:

   a. The majority believed in geocentricism and a flat Earth.
   b. Ideas need to be examined and proven wrong.
   c. Good ideas can arise from bad ideas. (Brainstorming)
      It is equally difficult to think a thought that is 100% true
      as it is to think a thought that is 100% false.

CRITICISM

KANT

1. Kant is considering the consequences.

2. Why observe duty when the consequences are bad? 474
How can being moral make everyone unhappy?
How can making everyone happy ever be immoral?

UTILITARIANISM

1. Why require us to seek pleasure, if we always seek it?

2. The greatest happiness can be achieved unjustly. 475

Mill argued that it's self-evident that we desire pleasure, therefore pleasure is desirable. No greater proof can be given.

All experiences are self-evident. No greater proof can be given. The problem occurs when you go from a self-evident fact to a value judgment. I desire pleasure is self-evident. Pleasure is desirable is not self-evident.

4. The fallacy of composition was committed in 6:

IMPORTANT TERMS

DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS - From the Greek deon meaning obligation or duty. A moral act is done from duty, and ignores the consequences.

EGOISM - Psychological egoism is the belief that we always pursue our own self interest. Ethical egoism is the claim that we ought to always pursue our own self interest. Note that neither imply that our self interest is pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

HEDONISM: Pleasure is the only intrinsic good. Psychological hedonism is the belief that we always pursue pleasure, and avoid pain. Ethical hedonism is the claim that we ought to always pursue pleasure, and avoid pain.

POSITIVISM - Auguste Comte's view that the is only knowledge of observable facts, and that science should limit itself to the facts.

TELEOLOGICAL ETHICS - From the Greek telos meaning end or purpose. An act is moral because it produced good consequences. The motive is irrelevant.

UTILITARIAN ETHICS - Moral acts are produce the greatest amount of pleasure for the greatest amount of people.

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