PHILOS 2YY3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Jeremy Bentham, Ceteris Paribus, Dennis Amiss
16 May 2018
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PHILOS 2YY3 – Jan 30 2018
What is (actually) Good?
Two Sovereign Masters
• To ask what is actually good is to ask what ceteris paribus has the highest value → i.e.
what has worth, usefulness, importance, significance and/or advantage
• For Jeremy Bentham, the answer to this question is relatively simple → follow the
legislation of our two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure (120)
o Whatever is pleasurable is good and whatever is painful is bad
• These instruments with which we are naturally equipped give us all the indication of the
actual good, how to pursue it and what is right and wrong as a result
The Principle of Utility
• That principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to
the tendency which is appears to have augment or diminish the happiness of the party
whose interest is in question (120)
o The evaluation an individual or group of individuals gives to some object
depends on the capacity of that object to cause pleasure or pain
• Utility is the term Bentha elists to deote a ojet that has a tede to produe
eefit, adatage, pleasure, good or happiess
Measuring Utility
• The capacity of an object itself to produce pleasure/pain in relation to an isolated
individual requires an Individual Metric →
o 1. Intensity (strength of feeling)
o 2. Duration (temporal length of feeling)
o 3. Un/Certainty (definable feeling, identifiable cause)
o 4. Propinquity (proximate spatial relation to object causing feeling)
o 5. Fecundity (the ability of an act to produce a feeling of pleasure/pain)
o 6. Purity (a feeling unmixed with its opposites)
• The capacity of an object to produce pleasure/pain in relation to a number of individuals
requires a Collective Metric →
o 7. Extent (the number of individuals affected by the object according to 1-6)
The Hedonic Calculus
• For individuals:
o A. Establish the value of any distinguishable pleasure produced by the proposed
act (viz. with reference to the individual metric)
o B. Determine the value of each pain produced by the same (viz. with reference
to the individual metric)
o C. Establish the fecundity of the act to produce pleasure and pain
o D. Sum up value of pleasures on one side and pains on the other
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Document Summary
Measuring utility: the capacity of an object itself to produce pleasure/pain in relation to an isolated individual requires an individual metric , 1. Propinquity (proximate spatial relation to object causing feeling: 5. Fecundity (the ability of an act to produce a feeling of pleasure/pain: 6. Purity (a feeling unmixed with its opposites: the capacity of an object to produce pleasure/pain in relation to a number of individuals requires a collective metric , 7. Extent (the number of individuals affected by the object according to 1-6) Establish the value of any distinguishable pleasure produced by the proposed act (viz. with reference to the individual metric: b. Calculating: manners a(cid:455)i(cid:374)g (cid:858)please(cid:859) a(cid:374)d (cid:858)tha(cid:374)k you(cid:859) If what is good is reducible to what is pleasurable, then the utilitarian should plug into the experience machine would you plug in: why should (cid:455)ou not plug i(cid:374)to the (cid:858)e(cid:454)perie(cid:374)(cid:272)e (cid:373)a(cid:272)hi(cid:374)e(cid:859, 1.
