PHL 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Consequentialism, Counterintuitive
Document Summary
Consequentialism tells us to be concerned with promoting peoples utility. Impossible to meet the needs of everyone"s preferences. Utilitarian"s say that the right action is the one that maximizes utility. Equal amount of utility matter equally, regardless. Trying to maximize utility for the greatest amount of the people. Our intentions do not tell us that equal amounts of utility should always have the same weight. 2 different accounts in utilitarianism of who the relevant we is: All of us are obliged to act according to utilitarian principles, even in our personal conduct. (moral) o it is the major social institutions which are specifically obliged to act according to utilitarian principles (political) 2 different accounts of what it means to act according to utilitarian principles . The agent should decide how to act by consciously making utilitarian calculations, but trying to assess how different actions would affect the satisfaction of informed preferences (direct)
