PHILOS 2YY3 Lecture 9: Lecture 9 – Mill "Utilitarianism"
2 Apr 2018
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As the only desirable end, pleasure is the good achievable in action; yet utilitarians are not blind hedonists concerned with pleasure or pain of any kind, but with specifically human pleasure and pain. Happiness contentment: not all pleasures are equally desirable or equally valuable, but. If utility is whatever increases pleasure in the widest possible sense and decreases pain in the widest possible sense, then doesn"t egoism follow from utilitarianism: no. Mill: not the agent"s own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of happiness altogether (161) The utilitarian standard the greatest happiness principle. All moral actions are those done for the sake of increasing the greatest happiness for the greatest number. The principle of impartiality: no one"s utility counts for more than any another (every one counts for one, what motivations and/or intentions an agent has in performing some action are morally irrelevant.
