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Topic: Utilitarianism (book)

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Utilitarianism

Positive freedom

John Stuart Mill

Francis Place

	Utilitarian Moral Theories
		Utilitarian theories also agree that utility, or good, is measured in terms of pleasure while bad, or evil, is measured in terms of pain; claiming that the action with the best consequences, the most pleasure for the most individuals, maximizes utility.
		Thus, Utilitarians believe that the right action is the one that has the best results for the most individuals, and this belief is commonly known as achieving the "greatest good for the greatest number." Utilitarians use this principle to determine which action, of all the actions possible in those circumstances, is moral.
		Utilitarian theories are not likely to come to a consensus on this issue in the near future, and theorists will continue to discuss which individuals must be included in calculations of the moral action.
	www.clarion.edu /academic/adeptt/bpcluster/utilitarianism.htm (2824 words)

	Utilitarianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Utilitarianism (from the Latin utilis, useful) is a theory of ethics based on quantitative maximization of some good for a population.
		Utilitarianism influenced economics, in particular utility theory, where the concept of utility is also used, although with quite different effect.
		Utilitarians argue that justification of either slavery, torture or murder would require improbably large benefits to outweigh the direct and extreme suffering to the victims and excludes the indirect impact of social acceptance of inhumane policies.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Utilitarianism (2683 words)

	Utilitarianism (book): Just the facts... (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Utilitarianism (Latin utilis, “useful”), in ethics, the doctrine that what is useful is good, and consequently, that the ethical value of conduct is determined by the utility of its results.
		The utilitarian theory of ethics is generally opposed to ethical doctrines in which some inner sense or faculty, often called the conscience, is made the absolute arbiter of right and wrong.
		Utilitarianism is likewise at variance with the view that moral distinctions depend on the will of God and that the pleasure given by an act to the individual alone who performs it is the decisive test of good and evil.
	www.absoluteastronomy.com /encyclopedia/u/ut/utilitarianism_(book).htm (148 words)

	Utilitarianism (book) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		John Stuart Mill's book Utilitarianism is one of the most influential and widely-read philosophical defenses of utilitarianism in ethics.
		In the first two chapters, Mill aims to precisely define what utilitarianism claims — in terms of the general moral principles that it uses to judge concrete actions, and in terms of the sort of evidence that is supposed to be given for those principles (Ch.
		In the third chapter, Mill discusses questions concerning the motivation to follow utilitarian moral principles; Mill discusses ways in which both external and internal sanctions (that is, the incentives provided by others and the inner feelings of sympathy and duty) encourage people to act in such a way as to promote the general happiness.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Utilitarianism_(book) (726 words)

	Utilitarianism - vitalcoaching.com
		Utilitarianism is a suggested theoretical framework for morality, based on quantitative maximisation of some definition of "utility" for society or humanity.
		Utilitarian anarchist William Godwin famously observed that if the life of the Archbishop of Cambray is preferable to the life of his chambermaid, the fact that the latter is my mother "would not alter the truth of the proposition".
		John Rawls rejects utilitarianism, both rule and act, on the basis that it makes rights depend on the good consequences of their recognition, and thus he argues that it is incompatible with liberalism.
	vitalcoaching.com /notes/utilitarianism.htm (1310 words)

	Utilitarianism
		Utilitarianism is a philosophical school of thought that has as its fundamental tenet the idea that the end purpose of all human conduct should be the attainment of the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest possible number of people.
		It is sometimes referred to as a more modern version of the ancient ethical theory of Hedonism, although Utilitarianism, in various manifestations, has made important distinctions between pleasure and happiness, and between personal happiness and group happiness.
		It is also interesting to note that the classic form of utilitarianism as practiced by Bentham and Mill was deeply influential to most subsequent forms consequentialism.
	www.iscid.org /encyclopedia/Utilitarianism (139 words)

	Chapter 2. What Utilitarianism Is
		Chapter 2. What Utilitarianism Is Chapter 2. What Utilitarianism Is A passing remark is all that needs be given to the ignorant blunder of supposing that those who stand up for utility as the test of right and wrong, use the term in that restricted and merely colloquial sense in which utility is opposed to pleasure.
		Utilitarianism, therefore, could only attain its end by the general cultivation of nobleness of character, even if each individual were only benefited by the nobleness of others, and his own, so far as happiness is concerned, were a sheer deduction from the benefit.
		It is the more unjust to utilitarianism that this particular misapprehension should be made a ground of objection to it, inasmuch as utilitarian moralists have gone beyond almost all others in affirming that the motive has nothing to do with the morality of the action, though much with the worth of the agent.
	fair-use.org /john-stuart-mill/utilitarianism/chapter-ii (5448 words)

	Highbeam Encyclopedia - Search Results for utilitarianism
		As a political and moral philosophy, utilitarianism is epitomized by a famous slogan coined by Jeremy Bentham, ‘the greatest happiness of the...
		Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, which advocates that those actions are right which bring about the most good overall.
		The simplest form of consequentialism is classical (or hedonistic) utilitarianism, which asserts that an action is right or wrong according to whether it maximizes the net balance of pleasure...
	www.encyclopedia.com /SearchResults.aspx?Q=utilitarianism (822 words)

	Utilitarianism
		The utilitarian answer to this question would be that we enjoy our integrity more than benefits that may follow from the adjustment, which rather confirms than refutes the basic principle of pleasure.
		In the second chapter of his book Bentham capitalizes on this insight and explicates ascetism just as a complete reversal of hedonism which reprobates "the least particle of pleasure" without realizing that pleasure could be found even in the most severe forms of abstention.
		Utilitarianism asserts that pleasure and pain can be measured, quantified and compared both with regard to individuals and groups.
	www.uri.edu /personal/szunjic/philos/util.htm (6254 words)

	Ian's World: Manifesto of the Moment: Utilitarian FAQ
		Utilitarians just keep adding patches to their theories to rectify specific criticisms, but the very fact that this is necessary demonstrates the bankruptcy of the Utilitarian approach.
		Utilitarianism trades off between the interests of different people, holding that what is important is their actual interests rather than what someone else thinks they should be interested in.
		Utilitarians tend to be in favor of a substantial degree of freedom and autonomy on the part of people because that is an effective way of promoting their welfare in practice.
	ianmontgomerie.com /manifesto/utilitarianfaq.html (21866 words)

	Ethics Text page
		Utilitarianism (from the Latin utilis, useful) is a theory of ethics based on quantitative maximization of some good for society or humanity.
		Utilitarians note that utilitarianism seems to be the unspoken principle used by both advocates and critics of nuclear power.
		Utilitarians argue that justification of either slavery, torture or murder would require improbably large benefits to outweigh the direct and extreme suffering to the victims and excludes the indirect impact of social acceptance of inhumane policies.
	pirate.shu.edu /~mckenndo/ethics-Utilitarianism.htm (2490 words)

	WowEssays.com - Mill's Utilitarianism
		Utilitarianism attempts to solve both of these difficulties by appealing to experience; however, no method of reconciling an individual decision with the rules of experience is suggested, and no relative weights are assigned to the various considerations.
		Utilitarianism requires that one compare the good that the people would do for society with the harm they would do society if they were not killed.
		Utilitarianism considers justice and humane treatment to be good for society as a whole and therefore instrumentally good as a means to promoting happiness.
	www.wowessays.com /dbase/ae2/meb280.shtml (2210 words)

	Is Utilitarianism Viable? - Mises Institute
		Yeager’s book ingeniously deals with many criticisms (since uncharitable critics force the utilitarian to devote most of his energies to explaining what he does not mean), yet it fails in this vital regard.
		The fundamental problem with utilitarianism is this: Despite a succession of ingenious proponents, its advocates have yet to explain why the individual should behave morally.
		Utilitarianism seems to rob the words good and bad of their specifically ethical character.
	www.mises.org /story/698 (2584 words)

	Review of Crisp, Scarre, and Shaw
		Whereas Crisp tries in his book to show the contemporary meaning and interest of an important part of the history of utilitarianism, Scarre’s emphasis is essentially the reverse, as he hopes for his book to “relate the lively contemporary debate about utilitarian ethics to the historical development of the theory” (p.
		He saddles utilitarianism with a commitment to a more demanding version of the aggregation requirement than it actually needs to presuppose, and he underestimates the extent to which intuitively plausible specifications of utility allow for the sorts of trade-offs in practice that the aggregation requirement demands.
		This overview of utilitarianism, along with the exceptionally encompassing historical survey that follows it, enables the first five chapters of the book to be an effective summary of the core ideas and history of utilitarianism.
	www.ku.edu /~utile/publications/review3.html (2573 words)

	TRINPsite: Book of Instruments: [Consequentialist Theories] In General; Utilitarianism in Particular
		Utilitarianism, as a form of consequentialism with the greatest happiness as sole principle, has no way to guarantee that the distribution of goods among sentient beings or persons will be an equal or proportional one (proportionate to their needs and/or merits, for instance).
		A utilitarian who could bring about more happiness in a human community by making the rich richer and the poor poorer would have to do so (assuming that the situation remains the same for all other sentient beings).
		Altho the utilitarian attempt at devising a normative unitary field theory has failed, the attempt at finding such a theory is in itself praiseworthy.
	www.trinp.org /MNI/BoI/7/4/1.HTM (1617 words)

	Learn more about Jeremy Bentham in the online encyclopedia. (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Jeremy Bentham (February 15, 1748 - June 6, 1832), the founder of Utilitarianism, was an English gentleman, jurist, philosopher, eccentric and legal and social reformer.
		This philosophy, utilitarianism, argued that the greatest good was whatever policy would cause the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
		Utilitarianism was revised and expanded by Bentham's more famous disciple, John Stuart Mill.
	www.onlineencyclopedia.org /j/je/jeremy_bentham.html (648 words)

	Utilitarianism
		Utilitarianism is based in arguments of 18th/19th century economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill and has the basic general principle that people will tend to act towards choosing the optimal solution that will make them most happy.
		This principle is also extended to views that utilitarianism also applies to groups, and that people will choose actions that will be of most benefit to the most people.
		The rational and calculable nature of utilitarianism makes it useful for disciplines, notably economics, that seeks to model our entire existence, and government, that seeks to create workable and generally acceptable laws.
	changingminds.org /explanations/research/philosophies/utilitarianism.htm (487 words)

	Amazon.co.uk: Utilitarianism: For and Against: Books (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		In the first part of the book Professor Smart advocates a modern and sophisticated version of classical utilitarianism; he tries to formulate a consistent and persuasive elaboration of the doctrine that the rightness and wrongness of actions is determined solely by their consequences, and in particular their consequences for the sum total of human happiness.
		Both authors are agreed on utilitarianism's importance: it cuts across a number of different philosophical disputes and combines a systematic account of mata-ethical problems with a distinctive and substantive moral stand.
		Covering justic, rule and act utilitarianism, average and total happiness and hedonistic and non-hedonistic utilitarianism, it is a comprehensive introduction to the topic.
	www.amazon.co.uk /exec/obidos/ASIN/052109822X (663 words)

	Utilitarianism (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Utilitarianism, for all the unfortunate connotations of the word (which conjures up images of factories, high-rise buildings and all things ugly-but-functional), is an ethical system of great elegance and beauty.
		That last remark, if actually made by a utilitarian, would amount to an abandonment of one of the key principles of utilitarianism which I haven't mentioned so far: you don't do things so as to have done the Right Thing; you do them because that has results which are good.
		The first point is one I've made already: utilitarianism, in so far as we can actually apply it (which means, in practice, only looking at a small chunk of the future and only looking at a small region of the universe), actually does a pretty good job of giving answers to ethical questions.
	homepage.ntlworld.com /g.mccaughan/g/essays/utility.html (3119 words)

	lect_3
		It is generally asserted in the utilitarianism as the foundation of morals that utility, or the general happiness principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.
		Utilitarians are quite aware that there are other desirable possessiones and qualities besides virtue, and are perfectly willing to allow to all of them their full worth.
		In this book, two fundamental principles are to be established: On the one hand, Mill would like to demonstrate and justify that the utilitarian principles is the first and most ultimate principle of morality.
	www.csudh.edu /phenom_studies/ethics/lect_3.htm (7287 words)

	utilitarianism - Encyclopedia.com
		utilitarianism, in ethics, the theory that the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its usefulness in bringing about the most happiness of all those affected by it.
		Jeremy Bentham identified good consequences with pleasure, which is measured in terms of intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extent.
		Herbert Spencer developed an evolutionary utilitarian ethics in which the principles of ethical living are based on the evolutionary changes of organic development.
	www.encyclopedia.com /doc/1E1-utilitar.html (607 words)

	Utilitarianism
		Utilitarianism is associated primarily with two English philosophers: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
		Bentham was a hard-headed, practical legal and social reformer in England, and the father of modern utilitarianism.
		The main way to criticize utilitarianism is to argue that there is more to ethics than happiness, and that some things just are right (or wrong) regardless of the consequences.
	academics.vmi.edu /psy_dr/utilitarianism.htm (955 words)

	Henry West - An Introduction to Mill's Utilitarian Ethics - Reviewed by Ben Eggleston, University of Kansas - ...
		The book begins with a brief introduction and a chapter on Millâs life and philosophical background, highlighting the direct and indirect influence of Bentham.
		West then devotes a chapter to Millâs reasons for rejecting three prominent non-utilitarian approaches to ethics: ethics based on divine command, ethics based on the notion of what is natural or on (what is perceived by some to be the content of) natural law, and ethics of the intuitionist school.
		Finally, the last chapter of Westâs book is essentially a short essay on the conflict between utility and justice.
	ndpr.nd.edu /review.cfm?id=1443 (1300 words)

	Encyclopedia: Utilitarianism (book)
		The essay is divided into five chapters: (1) On Liberty is a philosophical work in the English language by 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill, first published in 1859.
		In the second chapter, he then formulates a single ethical principle, from which he says all utilitarian ethical principles are derived:
		In economics, an incentive in anything that provides a motive for a particular course of action — that counts as a reason for preferring one choice to the alternatives.
	www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Utilitarianism-(book) (883 words)

	Theories, Stories, and Moral Judgment
		And utilitarian theories tend to employ monistic accounts of the good while non-utilitarian theories are likely to embrace pluralistic conceptions.
		Utilitarianism's governing conception pictures morality as if it were "the set of decisions that would be made by an impartial, benevolent observer" (p.
		The problem with utilitarianism from the point of view of common sense is that it seems prone to give too much significance to animals – to put their desires and interests on a par with human desires and interests.
	www.puaf.umd.edu /faculty/fullinwider/Illinois_Talk.htm (4717 words)

	ME Book 4 Chapter 1 Section 1
		The term Utilitarianism is, at the present day, in common use, and is supposed to designate a doctrine or method with which we are all familiar.
		By Utilitarianism is here meant the ethical theory, that the conduct which, under any given circumstances, is objectively right, is that which will produce the greatest amount of happiness on the whole; that is, taking into account all whose happiness is affected by the conduct.
		Nor, again, is Utilitarianism, as an ethical doctrine, necessarily connected with the psychological theory that the moral sentiments are derived, by ``association of ideas'' or otherwise, from experiences of the non-moral pleasures and pains resulting to the agent or to others from different kinds of conduct.
	www.la.utexas.edu /methsidg/me/me.b04.c01.s01.html (484 words)

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