1.The belief that the value of a thing or an action is determined by its utility. 2.The ethical theory proposed by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill that all action should be directed toward achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. ...
Utilitarianism definition: the ethical doctrine that virtue is based on utility, and that conduct should be directed toward promoting the greatest happiness of the greatest number of persons.. See examples of UTILITARIANISM used in a sentence.
One such teacher is Sharon?Klompus who says of her students—“so passive”—and wonders what happened.Nothing was demanded of them, she believes. Television, says Klompus, contributes to children’s passivity. “We’re not training kids to work any more,” says Klompus. “We’re talking ...
There is an epistemological problem regarding the fact that utilitarianism tells us we can never really know what the right action is, but that isn’t such a big deal because we can evaluate a person’s intentions based on expected consequences. The Deeper Problem: How do we compare preferences?
Finally, I explore what consideration of the DDA implies for Utilitarianism for Animals. I show that my discussion of the straightforward application of my DDA defence suggests that we should reject Nozick’s original understanding of Utilitarianism for Animals. I propose a way of understanding Act-...
’ 2 Suchstatementsoftenseektoclarifytherelativelyrecentnotionof consequentialism—thetheorythatweshouldmaximisethegoodnessofconsequences. Differentversionsofconsequentialism,theclarificationgoes,differonwhatconstitutesa goodconsequence.Oneversiontakesutilitytobetheonlygood,andtellsustomaximise utility.Thatversionis...
or certainly on the planet Earth. If we could painlessly annihilate the human race tomorrow, we should do it, because of the future suffering in the world that was gonna be experienced. So, utilitarianism cannot just be about minimizing suffering. It has to be some kind of cost, benefit ...
Russia’s economic crisis has slashed health-care budgets, and more money for AIDS seems unlikely. Even this year’s promised extra federal funds have yet to materialise, says Mr Pokrovsky. Officials, he adds, must abandon the old saying that “what’s good for the German is death for the...
Utilitarianism says you should give all your money to this charity, as each dollar will produce more happiness in their hands than you could possibly produce by spending it on yourself. Opponents argue that utilitarianism requires you to do something that is either clearly wrong (in the sheriff ...
are different versions of that which we might want to talk about. The other component is a principle about what we should do about that utility. And the usual version of utilitarianism is act utilitarianism, which says that we should produce as much of that well-being or utility as possible...