PHIL 3000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Consequentialism, Human Nature, John Stuart Mill
30 May 2016
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Document Summary
Virtue is valuable because we"re come to see it useful for producing happiness. Psychologically, we come to think virtue is an end-in-itself: human nature is constituted to value only happiness. No proof of utilitarianism is possible or necessary: fact that we desire pleasure, kantian object: will is different than desire and it is possible to seek other things besides pleasure. Happiness is valuable to everyone so everyone"s happiness is valuable to all. Example: equality is the only good, so maximize it. In other words,consequentialism seeks some state for us that is optimific = best possible outcome. Forward looking : we aim at realizing a future ends can justify the means. The most common type of consequentialism is utilitarianism.
