UtE

Question 1

Pleasure is not the only good (Nozick’s experience machine)

Answer 1

P1: If happiness was the only thing desired for its own sake then we would plug into the experience machine without hesitation.

P2: However, we would not plug into the experience machine without hesitation.

C1: Therefore, happiness is not the only thing desired for its own sake.

C2: Therefore, psychological hedonism is false.

P3: Hedonistic utilitarianism is ultimately based on psychological hedonism.

C: Therefore, hedonistic utilitarianism is false.

Question 2

Response to Nozick’s experience machine

Answer 2

Adopt a non-hedonistic utilitarian position, such as preference utilitarianism. This means that for a preference utilitarian, whether people should be plugged in depends on whether doing so maximises the satisfaction of preferences. So, if anyone had a greater preference to not plug in than their preference to feel pleasure, then, from a preference utilitarian perspective, this would count against plugging them in, even though it involved fewer feelings of pleasure

Question 3

Utilitarianism ignores fairness and risks tyranny of the majority

Answer 3

Utilitarianism doesn’t respect individual rights or liberty, because it doesn’t recognise any restrictions on actions that create the greatest happiness.

tyranny of the majority is a situation where a minority are oppressed in some way because of the benefit to the majority. It is argued that because utilitarianism aims at maximising utility, this risks a scenario in which tyranny of the majority is required by utilitarianism.

Question 4

Tyranny of the majority

Answer 4

A situation where the majority oppress a minority through social opinion or law

Question 5

Act utilitarianism response to the argument that utilitarianism ignores fairness and risks tyranny of the majority

Answer 5

Absolute moral rights do not exist. His reasons are partly empirical. There is no evidence of these “rights”. We can’t observe them. He thinks that it is empirically obvious that we value pleasure, but not empirically obvious that we have rights.

Question 6

Counter response to the idea that absolute moral rights do not exist

Answer 6

Various philosophers have argued that moral rights exist, but that they are not discoverable empirically e.g. Kant states that they are discoverable through reason

Question 7

Rule Utilitarianism response to the argument that utilitarianism ignores fairness and risks tyranny of the majority

Question 8

Counter response to rule utilitarianism’s solution to unfairness

Answer 8

P1: There are two options for the rule-utilitarian:
The rules are absolute; we should always follow them
or
The rules have exceptions; they are not absolute

P2: Option (A) is unacceptable because this no longer seems like a utilitarian view given that we must follow the rules even if this does not maximise utility.

P3: Option (B) is unacceptable because as soon as we allow exceptions the view is turning into act utilitarianism, because we are effectively now judging on a case by case basis. This also means that these are no longer “rights” in the sense that most people understand that word.

C1: Therefore, rule utilitarianism is unacceptable.

Question 9

There are problems with calculation

Answer 9

It is impossible to know the future. This means that you will never be absolutely certain as to what all the consequences of your act will be. An act that looks like it will lead to the best results overall may turn out badly, since things often don’t turn out the way you think they will

Question 10

Response 1 to problems with calculation

Answer 10

This does not mean that the theory (utilitarianism) is false

Utilitarianism is not a theory about how to make moral decisions, it is a theory about what makes an action the morally right one

This means that there is no expectation that a person would be able to know what is the right action. This would be impossible. But this doesn’t affect the truth of the theory itself.

Therefore, in practice, all we can do is our best when calculating which action will maximises utility. We might not always get it right, but the theory remains true: the right action is the one that maximises utility

Question 11

counter response to response one to problems with calculation

Answer 11

It is impossible to know whether someone has done the right thing and so moral knowledge is impossible.

As a result, we can no longer reasonably blame and praise people for their actions. We can’t blame someone for doing something wrong if it is impossible for them to know that it was wrong.

Question 12

act utilitarian response to problems with calculation

Answer 12

define the moral rightness of an action not in terms of its actual consequences, but instead in terms of the consequences that are foreseeable by the agent.

The morally right action is the one which foreseeably will maximise utility

Question 13

counter responses to the act utilitarian response to problems with calculation

Answer 13

Response 1: This isn’t really a utilitarian theory any more. How can a utilitarian claim that the right action might not maximise utility!

Response 2: The ultimate overall consequences of actions are never foreseeable.

Question 14

Rule utilitarian response to problems with calculation

Answer 14

We don’t have to work out the consequences of each act in turn to see if it is right. We need to work out which rules create the greatest happiness, but we only need to do this once, and we can do it together.

Question 15

Counter response to rule utilitarian response to problems with calculation

Answer 15

Although decisions now seem easier, this does not evade the ‘calculation’ issue altogether. It will still be very difficult to know which rules are the ones which, if followed, would maximise utility. This also requires a knowledge of the future and the connections between events that no person has. So even rule-utilitarianism leaves us sceptical about whether our action is right.

Question 16

Utilitarianism ignores the moral integrity of the individual (George argument)

Answer 16

George, a recent doctoral graduate in chemistry who is having difficulty finding work. George has young children. He also has poor health, limiting his job opportunities. George’s wife must work to support the family and this causes a great deal of strain on the family. George has a strong commitment to pacifism, a conviction amounting to an identity-conferring commitment. A dilemma arises for George when more senior colleague tells him about a decently paid job in a laboratory doing work on biological and chemical warfare. If George does not take up the job, it will almost certainly go to another chemist, one without George’s pacifist commitment, who will pursue the development of biological and chemical weapons more vigorously than George. Should George take the job or not?

Utilitarianism demands you act without integrity.

Question 17

Utilitarianism ignores the intentions of the individual

Answer 17

Intentions cannot be relevant to the morality of the action for utilitarians because it should only be the actual consequences that should matter. Utilitarians believe that only the consequences of an action are morally relevant - the right action is the action that produces the most utility. But this can seem to be at odds with the way we might normally think about morality.

Question 18

Issues around partiality

Answer 18

Failure to recognise individuals and what matters deeply to them when discussing morality and moral decisions. Many of the things that we do to make people happy are aimed at specific other people, our family and friends. But act utilitarianism argues that in our decisions, we need to consider the greatest happiness that our actions could create.