PHI 014S Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Urban Planner
10 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Philosophy
What is the meaning of life?
Happiness is the only intrinsically desirable thing
Everyone wants it
Anything else that is desirable is instrumentally desirable
Components of Utilitarianism
a. Consequence component
b. Value component (happiness)
c. Range component (whose happiness)
d. Principle of utility
i. The right thing to do is that which creates the most net happiness
1. Examples
a. Urban Planner- build highway or save small town.
Build the highway, because it creates accesbility
b. Ugly baby case- tell truth or lie
Everyone agrees that you should lie to the mother.
a. Would cause familial issues
b. Tension
c. It’s a no brainer
d. Moral duty- this decision would minimize suffering and
unhappiness.
c. Heart Transplant- (keep in mind that this is not how heart transplants work)
i. There are 3 possible recipients.
1. Scientist working on a cure for cancer
2. Single mother with 3 young children
3. A philosophy professor
ii. Who would you pick?
1. Most people rule the professor out almost immediately, leaving the
scientist and the mother.
2. Looking at the scientist, how strong is the cure?
3. Majority of people, pick the single mother because they start to
think about what would happen to her children if she were to die.
2. Explain the point of the objection to the swine (pig) objection to ulitarianism
a. Fit for animals, but not humans
b. Pleasure is highest component in human nature?
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