1. Utilitarianism – Strengths and
Weaknesses
By the end of this lesson
you will have:
•Discovered the
strengths and
weaknesses of
Utilitarianism
• Have considered
whether you think it is a
useful approach or not

2. Homework Re-Cap
• What have we learnt about Utilitarianism
from this Vardy extract?
• Answer questions 5 & 6 from the worksheet

3. Strengths & Weaknesses
• Complete the card sort and worksheet in your
booklet to distinguish the strengths and
weaknesses of utilitarianism

4. ‘Assessing’ Strengths and Weaknesses
• To gain a decent mark you must be able to
assess the strengths and weaknesses and
whether they are good or bad.
• Look at the strengths from yesterday, assess
each one with the person next to you
• Now do the same for the weaknesses

5. Scholar Quotes
• Quoting scholars in your evaluation is very
good practise
• On the sheet in front of you there are 7
different scholars who have opinions about
the effectiveness of utilitarianism
• You need to remember 3 different arguments
to add to your second section

6. In your own words...
• In your own words, write 3 sentences in your
notebook which represent your chosen 3
arguments.
• Now try and condense these 3 sentences into
bullet points in your notes
• Now try and think of an anagram or a revision
tool to help you remember these three scholars
(rhyming words etc)

7. In your own words...
• Sarah Tyler & Gordon Reid
• Patrick Clarke
• Mel Thompson
• James Rachels
• Cain Rolleston
• Robert Bowie
• Noel Stewart

8. Structure – AO2 – Part (b)
Introduction  First Argument For  First
Argument Against  Second Argument For 
Second Argument Against  Conclusion.
Introduction  First Point  Critique of First
Point  Second Point  Critique of Second
Point  Conclusion.
Introduction  Arguments For  Arguments
Against  Conclusion.
The above is acceptable, although is GCSE style, so won’t enable you
to access the higher levels. The structures below require higher order
thinking skills.

9. Paragraph Structure
AO2 – Part (b)
• PESEL
• Point – make a point
• Explain – explain that point
• Support – support the point using evidence,
reasoning or examples
• Evaluate – evaluate the point
• Link – connect the paragraph to that which
will follow

10. Paragraphs - Useful connecting
words / phrases
• This is important because ...
• The most significant is ... because ...
• However ...
• On the other hand ...
• It is likely that...because ...
• Therefore ...
• Nevertheless ...
• The implications of this are ...

11. Conclusions
• Should summarise what has gone before.
• Should never contain new material. That is
anything that has not been dealt with in
the preceding text.
• Should draw together the threads which
the writer has woven to form a tight,
coherent whole.

12. Conclusions
Comments from the examiners:
“An average essay can be raised by a strong
conclusion; a good essay can be felled by a bad
one.”
“Candidates need to be aware of the importance
in AO2 answers of drawing appropriate
conclusions in their discussions. There is a
tendency to present facts and ideas without
advancing arguments and without drawing
together key ideas in an appropriate conclusion.

13. Practise part (ii)
• Now try and complete a perfect part (ii) with
the question as...
• ‘assess the strengths and weaknesses of
Utilitarianism’ 15marks