1. Learning objectives: To know the difference between Bentham’s Act Utilitarianism and Mill’s Rule Utilitarianism To begin to understand the requirements for writing an AS level essay with the focus on AO1 objectives
2. Jeremy Bentham 1748-1832 Bentham believed that Nature had placed mankind under two sovereign masters – pleasure and pain His hedonic calculus was designed to calculate the morality of an action
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9. So here’s the story… One day, as John was reading up on the responses to his blog: ‘welovemoralissues.org’, he came across a match.com ad. This enticed him as he saw a picture alongside the popup of a dashing young woman. She called herself Linda. After they began to chat furiously over several moral issues, Linda interrupted John, suggesting they meet over dinner. John contemplated the moral consequences of this action for a moment, and quickly agreed. As long as it was fine dining it was sure to be okay!
10. On the date… I believe that an act is right or wrong based on the principle of utility. However, I think that ‘the greatest good’ can be worked out through the definitions of higher and lower pleasures.
11. Later on… So what we’re doing now, is it a higher or lower pleasure? A higher pleasure. Because not only are we developing our own unique human ability by developing our friendship (wink wink), we are also enjoying and appreciating fine food and drink which was created like a piece of artwork.
13. Mill Quote “Better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied… better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”
14. Act and Rule Utilitarianism Act utilitarianism Looks at the consequences of each individual act and calculates utility each time the act is performed Rule utilitarianism Looks at the consequences of having everyone follow a particular rule and calculates the overall utility of accepting or rejecting the rule
