PHIL 2103 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: John Stuart Mill, Act Utilitarianism, Consequentialism

55 views3 pages

mauvecod513

25 Aug 2016

School

University of Arkansas

Department

Philosophy

Course

PHIL 2103

Professor

Eli Hess

For unlimited access to Study Guides, a Grade+ subscription is required.

Document Summary

Consequentialist outlook: do as much good as you can. Ge moore whatever is right is whatever produces the most good. Acts are morally right just because they maximize the amount of goodness in the world: moore those who failed to accept this were immoral. Optimific producing the best overall balance between good and bad results: whatever is optimific is the one that morality requires. Consequentialists look at the consequences of our actions or policies: the end justifies the means. The nature of consequentialism: structure, what is intrinsically good valuable in and of itself and worth having for its own sake. Happiness, autonomy, knowledge, virtue: identify what is intrinsically bad. This is your moral duty and doing anything else is immoral: consequentialism an action is morally required just because it produces the best overall results (i. e. optimific results) Maximizing goodness: greatest good for the greatest number. In choosing among acts that benefit people, we must benefit the greatest number of people.

Related Questions

Brief and detail

If relativism is true, can you ever judge something as being morally wrong? Consider some really horrible actions, genocide, murder, slavery, torture or add your own. If you feel a relativist could say that these things are actually wrong, what gives them this ability? If they can't, why not?

Agree or disagree

Similarly to what I said in the first discussion on what morality means to us, I think everyone has their own set of moral principles and obligations. So I do think that relativism is true, to a point however. I used Adolf Hitler and the Nazi empire as an example in the first discussion so I will use that here. Hitler knew in his brain that what he was doing was good for his nation and arguably the world. Now, as a modern day society we can agree that was wrong. For him, it was good. In his own mind, he is right. But it is relative to the person. Generally speaking we all have similar notions of what is right and what is wrong. Most people would say that going out of your way to help someone else is a morally good principle. Selflessness in society is seen a good thing by the vast majority of people. When I say that relativism is good to a point, I mean that there is a general basis in society that deems actions as good or bad. And since most of us would all agree that hitlers actions were bad, then we say that he had bad moral principles, even though to him, they were good. It’s a little confusing even for me to put into words. Basically, if you actions are generally viewed in society as good, then you have good moral principles even if they vary from person to person. No one will have the exact same moral standards, but generally they all are very similar in society. So relativism is true until the point where the majority of society would deem your actions and wrong. I hope this makes sense.

Agree or disagree

If relativism is true, I don't think judging something as morally wrong is possible. Because the definition of ethical relativism is the moral standard only being correctly relative to each person/society, this means that the moral standard is created by you and/or the society you identify with and therefore eliminate the existence of an absolute moral principle. Since the moral standard is different for every individual, we cannot say that someone is morally wrong. If relativism is applied, that is. If a relativist were to say that they could judge someone as morally wrong, then that would contradict the main component of being a relativist. That every moral argument of yours is correct, therefore everyone else's is also correct. Quite problematic but that is my understanding on the matter

ell25

PHIL 2103 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: John Stuart Mill, Act Utilitarianism, Consequentialism

Document Summary

Get access

Related Documents

PHIL 2103 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Act Utilitarianism, Consequentialism, Jeremy Bentham

PHIL 2103 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: John Stuart Mill, Supererogation, Act Utilitarianism

PHIL 2103 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Consequentialism, Paternalism, Rationality

Related Questions