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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What is an overview of utilitarian arguments in support of exclusive relationships?
In light of the lack of success with my previous question Is exclusivity optimal from a utilitarian perspective? What's wrong with being non-exclusive?, I’d like to vindicate the topic by asking, ...
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Is exclusivity optimal from a utilitarian perspective? What's wrong with being non-exclusive? [closed]
Infidelity is typically regarded as a moral transgression, but it cannot exist without a prior promise of exclusivity.
This prompts the question: why is exclusivity so highly valued in the first place?...
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Is the metaphysical/methodological distinction fundamentally useful in taxonomies of ethical theories? [closed]
Presupposition of the question: that the realism/non-realism distinction is itself sufficiently fundamental to be worth juxtaposing with the metaphysical/methodological distinction in the first place.
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Is there such a thing (in the literature) as "process utilitarianism"?
I love Rawls' work, but I wonder if he didn't go a little "overboard" with his critique of utilitarianism. Like, he does go over "mixed conceptions" and all, but so much of his ...
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How do virtue ethics and utilitarianism compare on the issue of disconnecting life-support?
While reading this interesting Question about approaches to the issue of abortion, I thought it would be illuminating to consider the situation of disconnecting life-support.
For utilitarianism, it ...
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How do virtue ethics and utilitarianism differ in their approach to the issue of abortion?
The ethical issue of abortion generally presents two choices: to abort or not to abort. A utilitarian approach would likely involve calculating the consequences of each option, seeking to maximize ...
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Are there any virtues in virtue ethics that cannot be plausibly grounded in more fundamental utilitarian principles?
I will go over several virtues and explore potential ways they might be derived from or justified within a utilitarian ethical framework:
Courage:
Virtue Ethics: Courage is valued as the ability to ...
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Can objective morality be derived as a corollary from the assumption of God's existence?
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that a God does exist. From this premise/axiom, how would it logically follow that objective morality exists?
Even if it’s objectively true that God can punish ...
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Are there utilitarian arguments showing a society with only loving heterosexual marriages achieves greater utility than all other alternatives?
Option 1: A hypothetical society where only loving heterosexual marriages exist.
Option 2: Any other society that deviates from the hypothetical ideal set forth by Option 1, by including, for example, ...
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Is there a version of Trolley problem without the actual result being known?
I was making some readings on the Trolley Problem but it caught my attention that most of examples and different versions include, without any intervention, the actual path of the trolley is known to ...
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How does utilitarianism deal with threats to others which depend on your actions?
If I was told that if I don't, for example, sit down, someone would commit an act of terrorism, would I be morally obligated to sit down under utilitarianism? On one hand, it would minimise suffering, ...
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Is Tipping Morally Justifiable?
Those subscribing more to an individualistic rather than cosmopolitan conception of capitalism often make utilitarian claims for justifying the moral practice of tipping. In light of utilitarian ...
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Ethics based on maximizing "understanding"
Can we declare that the ultimate moral good is to maximize understanding of deep truths, and all else follows from that?
The main thing that could morally distinguish humans from other animals is that ...
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Why are most utilitarians not eugenicists?
I'm not a utilitarian, nor am I a eugenicist, but it seems to me that a utilitarian should support the accelerated adaptation of the human genome to try to mitigate things like genetic disorders or ...
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Utilitarianism and the interests of all others
I believe that the pains and pleasures of others are just as important as my own, whether I like them or not. But I know someone who argues otherwise, and thinks that it’s a matter of complete ...
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In a Platonic utilitarianism, would the only commandment be, "Contemplate the Form of Happiness"?
Suppose that the Form of Happiness were the most happiness-bringing entity possible, i.e. that Platonic contemplation of this Form would cause the greatest happiness possible for any entity (including ...
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Is Bentham's "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" ill-defined?
Bentham's Utilitarianism is defined as pursuing "the greatest happiness of the greatest number", but it contains two optimization goals, "greatest happiness" and "greatest ...
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What are valid rebuttals to utilitarianism?
From Britannica, utilitarianism is an ethics concept in which
an action (or type of action) is right if it tends to promote happiness or pleasure and wrong if it tends to produce unhappiness or pain—...
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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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