The utilitarianism tag has no wiki summary.
3
votes
3answers
148 views
Argument against Singer's analogy of the pond
Peter Singer gave a famous argument in Famine, Affluence and Morality that made an analogy between saving a drowning child in a pond at the expense of getting your clothes wet, and donating the ...
0
votes
1answer
88 views
Christmas Dilemma
The Christmas Dilemma:
Suppose there are 2 children siblings and 3 Christmas presents. 2 Christmas presents have a value of $20 and 1 Christmas present has a value of $200. Each child can be given ...
0
votes
2answers
151 views
Is there a name for the philosophy of increasing happiness more than reducing it is the only moral good?
I recently answered this question on the ethical duty to help educate others, where I wrote:
I feel like if a person increases "happiness" more in his life then he
decreases the "happiness" then ...
3
votes
2answers
152 views
Is there an utilitarian stance on top-down utility maximization?
Frequently, utilitarian ethics are presented from the point of view of individual decision-making, that is, the maximization of the "pleasure less suffering" function which underlyies rational choice ...
3
votes
1answer
272 views
How did Mill resolve tensions in Utilitarianism and Liberalism concerning the public/private distinction?
J. S. Mill is well known as an intellectual father of both Utilitarianism and Liberalism, but I was thinking recently about a tension between these lines of thought and wondered if he ever addressed ...
-4
votes
2answers
225 views
Should you pay up in Pascal's mugging? [closed]
The Pascal's mugging problem is described as follows:
Now suppose someone comes to me and says, "Give me five dollars, or
I'll use my magic powers... to kill 3^^^^3 people.
3^^^^3 is an ...
3
votes
2answers
201 views
What are the standard responses to this criticism of utilitarianism?
Might not someone else's utility or preferences about what people do infringe upon what's ordinarily taken as right to liberty or privacy? For example, if there were someone who just found it ...
4
votes
2answers
201 views
Is property an absolute or utilitarian right?
It seems to me that property cannot be considered an intrinsic part of human nature, not in the way life is, for example. Property defines a relationship between two objects that only has a basis in ...
6
votes
4answers
332 views
Which ethical philosophy is concerned with maximizing expected universal good?
Take this ethical belief:
"People should act such that they, upon considering with a reasonable amount of effort related to the significance of the decision, believe that they will maximize the good ...
4
votes
1answer
109 views
Utilitarianism and adding more people
How does utilitarianism deal with adding more people? (Question updated to include total utilitarianism)
Firstly, suppose we are using average utilitarianism. Suppose everyone in the world is super ...
1
vote
4answers
178 views
Can any system of ethics be reconstructed in utilitarian terms? [closed]
According to Dimo414:
It seems to me that in a sense
utilitarianism is a meta-ethic. I
would claim that any ethical system
can be reconstructed - without
changing it's meaning or ...
7
votes
2answers
104 views
What is the justification for averaging utility in utilitarianism?
Every time I have heard utilitarianism discussed, it is generally assumed that utility should be averaged. While this sounds reasonable, the reasoning isn't particularly strong.
What justifications ...
7
votes
1answer
387 views
What is a straight-forward method for distinguishing pragmatic from utilitarian action or thought?
In common parlance, pragmatic and utilitarian are very similar ways of doing things. In philosophical traditions, Utilitarians and Pragmatists are very different. In terms of understanding an action ...
5
votes
3answers
168 views
Resolving weighting conflicts in preference utilitarianism
Assuming we're dealing with the actions of two people based on the preferences of two non overlapping sets of affected people, other than the number of people, which methods are available to resolve ...
9
votes
2answers
161 views
How has neuroscience characterized classic Benthamite utilitiarian reasoning in situations like the trolley problem?
With regards to the famous trolley problem, I know that neuroscientists have largely found people believe it is morally wrong to flip the switch to kill one man in order to save five strangers.
I ...
