1. Plan

3.  Bentham – social reform needed new ethics
 Universalisable, consequentialist, teleological
, relativist
 Principle of Utility – Measure of the
usefulness of an action, a good action brings
happiness
 Inspired by Hutcheson “Greatest good for the
greatest number.”

4.  Quantitatively measure pleasure
 Hedonist
 1789 “Nature has placed mankind under the
governance of two sovereign masters, pain
and pleasure. It is for them alone to decide
what we ought to do.”
 HedonicCalculus

5.  Qualitative measure
 “Competent judges,” higher/lower
pleasure, everyone can experience both
 “Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool
satisfied.”

6.  Solves subjectivity
 Peter Singer/R.M. Hare
 Satisfies preferences, easy to express
 Joan of Arc

8.  Acts in the good of the majority
 Does not allow a dangerous minority to
dominate

9.  Easy to understand
 Principle of Utility is hard to misinterpret.

10.  Based on common sense
 Everyone wants to experience pleasure

11.  Moral dilemmas are complex

12.  A person’s aims could be good and their
actions could go wrong.

13.  Phillip Pettit: “So long as they promised the
best consequences, it would forbid absolutely
nothing.”