Success

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. ♦ Albert Schweitzer

Group 1 ♦ Roxann Sommerville ♦ Monesha Johnson ♦ Ava-Loi Walsh

Utilitarianism

♦ an action is morally right if the

consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone. ♦ Simply put, utility means satisfaction

♦ First, according to act-utilitarianism, it

would be morally wrong to waste time on leisure activities such as watching television, since our time could be spent in ways that produced a greater social benefit, such as charity work.

There are two ways to divide utilitarian theories ♦ (1) into different views on what counts as

utility (preference satisfaction, happiness, pleasure) ♦ (2) into different objects of evaluation (act, rule).

Act/Rule utilitarianism

♦ Bentham proposed that we tally the

consequences of each action we perform and thereby determine on a case by case basis whether an action is morally right or wrong. ♦ This aspect of Bentham's theory is known as act-utilitarianism.

♦ Second, Bentham also proposed that we

tally the pleasure and pain which results from our actions. ♦ For Bentham, pleasure and pain are the only consequences that matter in determining whether our conduct is moral. ♦ This aspect of Bentham's theory is known as hedonistic utilitarianism.

♦ Rule utilitarianism says that you evaluate an

action according to its conformity to the best rules, and you evaluate rules according to whether they produce the most utility. ♦ Unlike act utilitarianism, which weighs the consequences of each particular action, ruleutilitarianism offers a litmus test only for the morality of moral rules, such as "stealing is wrong." ♦ Adopting a rule against theft clearly has more favorable consequences than unfavorable consequences for everyone.

♦ The same is true for moral rules against

lying or murdering. ♦ Rule-utilitarianism, then, offers a threetiered method for judging conduct. ♦ A particular action, such as stealing my neighbor's car, is judged wrong since it violates a moral rule against theft.

♦ In turn, the rule against theft is morally

binding because adopting this rule produces favorable consequences for everyone. ♦ John Stuart Mill's version of utilitarianism is rule-oriented.

Desire utilitarianism How is it that something can be ‘good’?

♦ according to desire utilitarianism,

pleasurable consequences are the only factors that matter, morally speaking. ♦ This, though, seems too restrictive since it ignores other morally significant consequences that are not necessarily pleasing or painful.

♦ Desire utilitarianism is like rule

utilitarianism in that it says that you evaluate actions according to whether they conform to the best desires, and you measure desires according to their utility. ♦ Utility, in turn, is measured in terms of desire fulfillment .

♦ Desire utilitarianism holds that value-laden

terms such as ‘good’ relate to reasons for action. ♦ To call a particular state of affairs ‘good’ is to say that reasons for action exist to pursue that thing. ♦ A state is bad if reasons for action exist for avoiding it.

♦ The only reasons for action that exist are

desires. ♦ Desires are propositional attitudes. ♦ We can evaluate desires themselves by measuring their tendency to fulfill other desires, So, now we have a way of evaluating character traits (desires).

desire utilitarianism as a virtue theory

♦ As a virtue theory, desire utilitarianism has

some significant advantages over other virtue theories in that it does not require any strange metaphysics to account for value. ♦ Virtues are desires – ordinary materialworld states that we have been using to explain and predict real world events (intentional behavior) for years.

♦ There is no God or intrinsic value, yet these

entities (desires) are as real as quarks and black holes (other things we cannot see directly, but which we know about because of their effects).

Virtue Ethics

♦ Virtue theory is a branch of

moral philosophy that emphasizes character, rather than rules or consequences, as the key element of ethical thinking.

today the tradition’s key concepts derive

from ancient Greek philosophy.  These concepts include: ♦ arête (excellence or virtue), ♦ phronesis (practical or moral wisdom), ♦ eudaimonia (flourishing).

♦ Obviously, strong claims about the purpose

of human life, or of what the good life for human beings is, will be highly controversial. ♦ Virtue theory's necessary commitment to a teleological account of human life thus puts the tradition in sharp tension with other dominant approaches to normative ethics, which, because they focus on actions, do not bear this burden. ♦ Virtue ethics are based purely on the choices that we make.

It is for me, not for you, to pronounce on whether I am happy, or on whether my life, as a whole, has been a happy one, for, barring, perhaps, advanced cases of self-deception and the suppression of unconscious misery, if I think I am happy then I am — it is not something I can be wrong about. Contrast, my being healthy or flourishing.