Questions tagged [utilitarianism]
The ethical theory that answers all questions of what to do, what to admire, or how to live, in terms of maximizing *utility* or happiness.
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Is Ethics essentially the same as Utilitarianism?
I have no training in philosophy so bare with me here. I often feel like the way people, including philosophers, talk about it is irrational. I am here to ask if you agree with me on the following. If ...
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What is the moral difference between saving a life and creating a life?
In modern society, a lot of people think that giving birth is either wrong if it leads to some suffering or at the very least non-morally optional. However, saving a life is considered good. Why is ...
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On the nature of goods?
If I have an apple and you have an apple and we both exchange we both still have one apple. But if I have an idea and you have an idea and we both exchange we have 2 ideas.
Obviously the exchange of ...
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How does hedonistic utilitarianism rule the problem that people seek for domination?
Hedonistic utilitarianism can be synthesized by Jeremy Bentham's statement: "the greatest good [= pleasure] for the greatest number."
However, if it might be true that the drive to seek ...
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Does utilitarianism imply materialism?
Does utilitarianism imply materialism?
Utilitarianism has for one component epicurianism, which is a materialist philosophy, and also consequentialism which cares about real life consequences of ...
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Harm Principle and the Trolley Case
My question concerns what someone following the Harm Principle does when confronted with a trolley-like situation: where causing a couple people to die would save many more lives. This specifically ...
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Are there any well-grounded moral systems that can't be manipulated to justify whatever decision its acceptant wishes?
In §26 of A Theory of Justice (1999 ed.), Rawls writes:
A problem of choice is well-defined only if the alternatives are suitably restricted by natural laws and other constraints, and those deciding ...
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Essay critiques on monetary utilitarianism
I am trying to figure out what are the critiques of a Utilitarianism oriented around money. The critiques of Utilitarianism in general is pretty easy to find online, but not for specifically about ...
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From the point of view of utilitarianism, should we consider everyone as immoral? Since no one meets the moral standards of utilitarianism
I say that no one meets the moral standards of utilitarianism because a faithful adherence to the utilitarian criteria would require you to give your resources until you lower your standard of living ...
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How can it be justified from utilitarianism that we must keep our promises?
How can it be justified from utilitarianism that we must keep our promises?
I want to know if it can be justified from utilitarianism.
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Under what conceptions of God does it follow that we necessarily are in "the best of all possible worlds"?
My personal take on this question is that it would follow that we are living in "the best of all possible worlds" if God were a utilitarian, that is, if we viewed God as an agent making ...
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Harm Principle and Duty to Rescue - Which "baseline" should an action be compared against when assessing harm?
Preface
("What isn't my question")
As prominently articulated by Mill, liberalism (and the harm principle) asserts that it is always bad for aggregate utility to coercively interfere in ...
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Are there any "right-now" versions of utilitarianism?
From what I can tell, the conclusive problems that normal utilitarianism faces are (A) the knowability problem, which is whether we could really know the total future impact of our actions, or (B) &...
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Can the Christian God be a Utilitarian?
I've been entertaining the idea that the Christian God might be utilitarian, after noticing many correlations between things that the Christian God commands or desires and things that promote ...
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Question regarding extrapolating Peter Singer's 1972 paper--"Famine, Affluence and Morality."
"Famine, Affluence and Morality" by Peter Singer's conclusion-- Donating to charity is morally obligatory and not supererogatory.
When further asked how much to donate-- as much as we ...
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Are choices that lead to harm if required by duty or executed with consent still ethical?
If people carried out actions which could potentially harm others, and others consented to the person carrying out the action, is carrying out such an action still ethical? If I were to judge this ...
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Is it immoral to provide harmful things even if it is known that such things are harmful?
Is the act of providing potentially harmful things to others unethical from the utilitarianism perspective? Would it be immoral to serve things that definitely will harm people (cigarettes, toxic food ...
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Would objectivist utilitarianism be considered to be a form of moral absolutism?
Wikipedia defines moral absolutism as the view that "there is at least one principle that ought never to be violated". Does this mean that even someone who holds morally objectivist ...
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Why is no used the Utilitarian "And what?" answer?
Utilitarismus is very hated for going against things like the right to live, steal and so on.
Utilitarians typically have tried to reconcile the doctrine with this common-sense aspect of ethics.
But ...
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Does Mill intend to identify attainment of desires and happiness?
Mill explcitly states that "in reality there is nothing desired except happiness", which I paraphrase as "if person X desires event Y, then X believes the attainment of event Y would ...
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Voting and evidential expected utility
Say there is a large election between two candidates 𝐴 and 𝐵. A winning would have a utility value of 100, B winning would have utility value 0. Going out and voting would add a (sub)value of -1 ...
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What is the scope of Utilitarianism?
Utilitarianism can be used to explain all kinds of environmental protection measures quite well. For example, it can be used to justify why individual factories must clean their wastewater and not ...
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Has utilitarianism actually been applied to decision-making in history?
Are there cultures/societies in which utilitarianism is the norm? Have there ever been major political decisions made on a strictly utilitarian basis, and how did those decisions turn out?
I am ...
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Why does the classical trolley problem have a 1 to 5 ratio
I'm just starting to wet my feet with Philosophy but of course, I've known about the trolley problem for a long time.
However it just occurred to me that the classical version of this problem always ...
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What are the limitations of Peter Singer's utilitarianism? [closed]
What are the limitations of Singer's argument in "Famine, Affluence and Morality" and the conclusion he presents ?
As well as the limitations of his statement that letting the child drown ...
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Is it ethical to legalize psychedelic drug therapy for the terminally ill?
The ethics of relieving end of life anxiety with psychedelic drugs is in question. I would like a risk/ benefit analysis according to all the facts. If the benefits outweigh the risk of harm, then I ...
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Moral dilemma: wellbeing vs autonomy
Imagine you are pregnant, or the husband of a mother-to-be.
You live in a world which is brutal; relentlessly cruel.
Prior to birth, an offer is submitted to you:
"Bring your child into the ...
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What do philosophers call the aspirational ideal of deliberative decision-making / governance?
I'm interested in the oldest and/or most notable articulation of what a potential ideal decision-making / governance approach would aspire to.
More concretely, consider an idealized decision-making ...
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Is Utilitarianism a theory of normative ethics or meta-ethics?
I would have thought Utilitarianism should be viewed as a theory of meta-ethics. This is because, in my view, Utilitarianism addresses the issue of "what is good?" by providing a method (i.e....
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Famous Philosophical Riddles/Problems throughout History
I am looking to learn more about famous philosophical riddles/problems throughout history.
For example - problems similar to:
Epicurean Problem of Evil
Buridan's Donkey
Pascal's Wager
Trolley Problem
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Are emotional aspects considered in the utilitarian standard of morality?
Are emotional aspects considered in the utilitarian model of morality?
We know the utilitarian model of morality proposes a standard based on the calculated value of how much an action contributes to ...
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Is it ethical to convince someone to get vaccinated?
I'm currently writing about the ethics of vaccinations, and I have two long-standing concerns about the matter. "Is refusing vaccination a morally justifiable position?" will be my question. ...
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According to Utilitarianism, how do we define greater good?
Utilitarianism sets out to have "the greater good for a greater number of people," but what if someone's definition of good is committing something like mass genocide (something on the lines ...
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The usefulness of the useless (pure math and pure science)
In Italian philosopher Nuccio Ordine's The utility of the useless, he returns to a traditional and inexhaustible theme: the value of education and its relationship with culture. Ordine identifies that ...
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Is Determinism a valid objection to Utilitarianism (or ethics in general)?
I understand Utilitarianism to be the ethical theory which states that "we should choose to do those things that cause the most happiness".
As soon as I see the word "choose" in ...
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Is there a reason that utilitarianism is the "default" moral system of thinking for many humans, and if so, why?
Over the past few centuries a shift has been seen, from the likes of strict adherence to Christianity (at least, in Europe) to greater reliance on science, etc. as observed by Friedrich Nietzsche. ...
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According to utilitarianism, are the only moral actions the ones that maximize utility? What about actions that increase utility, but not maximally?
Whenever I look at a definition of utilitarianism, what I see is that it only seems to prescribe actions that maximize utility.
Suppose that, for a given junction, you have a set of possible actions ...
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Why can't consequentialist morality be "fixed" to accommodate family/friend considerations by enlarging the definition of happiness?
This is cited as one of the first objection to consequentialism here (https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethics-philosophy/Objections-to-consequentialism):
"It is also claimed that, because ...
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Multidimensional utility
I'm an outsider to the philosophy community (I'm a mathematics PhD student), and I'm curious of whether the following critique has been addressed. During some superficial discussions I had on ...
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Is this moral philosophy consequentialist or deontological?
I'm working on an article in which I attempt to defend a "unified" theory of morality that takes insights from all the most popular moral theories in Western philosophy. The main principle ...
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Which distribution is allowed by Rawls's difference principle?
Let's say we have the following different distributions of monetary wealth possible for a society. Here, LAG := Least Advantaged Group, OG := Ordinary group, MAG := Most Advantaged Group.
Type
LAG
OG
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Is the tyrannicide perpetrated by William Tell morally legitimate?
I have recently been reading Friedrich Schiller's fantastic Drama William Tell, in which he not only relates the folkloric-mythological origin of Switzerland upon its liberation from the yoke of the ...
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Under utilitarianism, does drug dealing become moral if you're good enough at it?
A simple utilitarian argument against drug dealing is that while the user may experience a great deal of pleasure, their family and friends are hurt more. But does this argument hold once a critical ...
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Is it possible for morality to exist?
I used to be fairly convinced that morality existed - because of the numerous different ethical systems available, I was sure that even if I did not know which system was right, that morality, in some,...
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What is a negative side of a utilitarian that focuses on what is expected to happen?
I know that we can divide utilitarians into two groups, those that focus on what was expected to happen and those that focus on what actually happened, and that most fall into the latter group. ...
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Does rule utilitarianism fail to be effectively utilitarian?
So from what I understand, rule utilitarianism as a doctrine states that in order to maximize utility, we should evaluate actions based on rules that, if we accept them, would maximize utility in the ...
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For Mill, is all speech ethical so long as it doesnt conflict with the harm principle?
I understand that Mill was a big advocate of freedom of speech and expression.
Im just wondering whether he just saw that as state policy or if he thought that on an individual level all speech is ...
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Utilitarianism and naturalistic fallacy [closed]
Does utilitarianism commit the naturalistic fallacy? Can someone tell with respect to act and rule utilitarianism?
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Is there any act utilitarian philosopher?
According to the Greatest Happiness Principle […] the ultimate end […]
is an existence exempt as far as possible from pain, and as rich as
possible in enjoyments, both in point of quantity and quality;...
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How real is the distinction Durkheim makes between the 2 forms of individualism in his 'Individualism and the Intellectuals'?
A summary from Britannica:
The French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) identified two types
of individualism: the utilitarian egoism of the English sociologist
and philosopher Herbert Spencer (...
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