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Sociale Filosofie
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Sociale FilosofieLecture 1
Ethics and justice – Mill, Bentham, Rawls
Reading: Sections form Adam Swift’s Political Philosophy
What is ethics?
= The systematic and critical reflection on (conventional ideas about) what is good
and bad, right and wrong.
The interactions about people and institutions. And we’re taking a more normative
approach here. Has to do with these normative issues (what is good and bad).
Descriptive questions - what the world looks like, explaining what is going on in the
world.
Ethics talks about the world what it is instead of the world as it should be.
What is the purpose of an ethics class at university?
Not: to tell what (I think) is right and wrong.
But: to help you develop skills and attitudes relevant to character building (critical
thinking, argumentation, intellectual independence, intellectual humility, awareness of
consequences of your decisions, …).
These are characters defined by Tilburg University.
What is ethics?
All of us have different (moral) beliefs and intuitions about what good is good and
bad. Ethical theories systemize these different beliefs.
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, Each of these theories provides helpful tools to ethically evaluate your own actions
and lives, but also societies, organizations and companies.
Instead of preaching how you. Should lead your lives or which policies societies,
organizations, companies should adopt, this course will provide different perspectives
to inform your critical thinking, reasoning and (perhaps also) acting.
The big three ethical theories:
We will go into two of them:
1. Consequentialism: act so as to promote good consequences.
Utilitarianism: act so as to maximize utility.
2. Deontology: adhere to basic ethical principles and fulfil moral duties.
3. Virtue ethics: be a virtuous person or act as a virtuous person would.
Consequentialism 101
Consequentialism is teleological: the moral quality of an action, policy, institution…
depends on the outcomes or consequences. What occurs due to you doing something
for example. Whether your actions are ethical you have to look at the consequences.
One should promote (instead of honor) what is good.
Sacrificing something of value is justified if more of that value is realized (the end
justifies the means).
E.g. taking planes to raise global awareness about climate change.
E.g. see a suicide bomber – ethical to kill the suicide bomber before he kills more
people.
Utilitarianism 101
Utilitarianism is more specific what good consequences are. The opposite of
consequentialism (does not tell what good consequences are.
One should maximize utility, which is often understood hedonistically (utility as the
sum of pleasurable minus unpleasurable experiences.
Pain and pleasure, both determine what we (shall) do to avoid pain and come to
pleasure. But it is also a normative question. We should strive to maximize pleasure
and avoid as much as possible main. We need to maximize utility = try to strive to as
much pleasure in the world and least pain as possible. (quote)
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, Utilitarianism 101
Underlying view of people as bundles of utility is dominant in economics, both for
explanatory purposes (cf. homo economicus) and for normative purposes.
Utility can refer to sense of satisfaction (hedonistic_ feeling happy, being satisfied, but
most economist understand it as satisfaction of preferences, regardless whether that
leads to pleasurable sensations. If I have a preference for peace, if this preference is
satisfied, I’m happy.
Utilitarianism 101: Bentham
Jeremy Bentham’s (1748-1832) principle of utility: one should do whatever brings
about the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Bentham thinks we can measure utility and should calculate the expected utility of
different options and select the one that maximizes overall utility. You can measure
how happy you are (8/10)
This is demanding: you should maximize utility, even if that means lowering your
utility.
Utilitarianism doesn’t say you need to do whatever makes you the happiest, you
should do what everybody’s pleasure is, what’s best for the world. You doing
whatever is necessary to get the greatest happiness not for you, but for the greatest
number.
Utilitarianism 101: Mill
John Stuart Mill (1859) stresses freedom much more than Bentham does. One person
is tortured, but you will all be very happy by watching him torture so this is fine by
Bentham. But Mill stresses much more for people’s rights.
If people have rights and liberties, they can experiment and choose the lifestyle that
suites them best. In the long run, freedom is the best way to achieve greatest
happiness. Everyone can choose their own lifestyle.
Mill was a radical democrat and social reformer who defended the right for women to
vote long before it was implemented.
Utilitarianism 101: Singer
Importance of equality and impartially:
Everybody to count for one and nobody for more than one (Bentham) – means that
everybody matters. If you have the capacity for pain and pleasure that matters. It is
importance that you have pleasurable experiences. Everybody’s pain and pleasure
measures. Everybody should be given equal moral.
Equal consideration: everybody’s pain/pleasure should be given equal moral weight.
Pain is pain, regardless who experiences it. There is no good reason why your pain
should matter more than another’s.
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