Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Experience Machine, Appeasement, Consequentialism

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 1020E
• Professor: Charles Jones

Document Summary

Wolff says that political obligation is: the obligation to obey the law because it is the law. Mid term test saturday november 5th, 10am 12noon. Due friday november 11th - see owl site (cid:894)(cid:1005)(cid:895) essay assig(cid:374)(cid:373)e(cid:374)t. (cid:894)(cid:1006)(cid:895) d(cid:396). Jo(cid:374)es o(cid:374) (cid:862)ho(cid:449) to (cid:449)(cid:396)ite a(cid:374) essay(cid:863), a(cid:374)d (cid:894)(cid:1007)(cid:895) essay (cid:396)eadi(cid:374)gs. Good family of concepts refers to a global agreement of what is good. Right is predicated more on actions, morally right, just unjust: the right action is the one that maximizes utility. Utility = happiness, well-being, pleasure, preference satisfaction. Obey the law if and only if doing so will produce greater happiness than disobeying. Commitment to equal concern (bentham says (cid:862)e(cid:448)e(cid:396)yo(cid:374)e (cid:272)ou(cid:374)ts fo(cid:396) o(cid:374)e, (cid:374)o o(cid:374)e (cid:272)ou(cid:374)ts (cid:373)o(cid:396)e tha(cid:374) o(cid:374)e(cid:863) e(cid:448)e(cid:396)yo(cid:374)e is e(cid:395)ual(cid:895) Requirement of maximization: duty to produce as much good as possible. We value impartial concern, especially as a public value. Consequentialism: the idea that consequences are the only thing that matters.