PHIL 2408 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Categorical Imperative, Deontological Ethics, Kantian Ethics
25 May 2016
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Lecture 1: utilitarianism mill"s greatest happiness principle: actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. The consequence of an action is used to decide if the action is right. Can be used as a standard to judge if an action is right or wrong. There are other goods health, friendship, creativity, intellectual attainment, etc. Can"t calculate consequence for all actions too many. Can"t always judge good or bad in terms of increasing/decreasing overall happiness. Rejected mill"s principle the bad should suffer. Believed if everybody in the same situation would act one way, than that action is right. Consistency & universality the categorical imperative rule. Doctor must ask for permission for everything, patients need to give consent. Patient makes own choices unless underage or has mental problems: virtue ethics aristotle"s golden mean: we achieve our function excellently when our action expresses the proper virtue.
