MGTA02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Contractualism, City Of Life, Narcissism
Ethics Lecture Notes
TA: Robyn Forman
Email: robyn.forman@mail.utoronto.ca
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Lecture 1: Jan/11/2018
• Fundamental question: what is the right thing to do
• Morality – value enforces how we must act, includes justice and fairness
• Welfare Consequentialism
o Moalit eaples: do’t assault, lie, steal, keep promises, rescue/give aid
o Individual well-being – related to welfare, happiness, quality of life, etc.
• The correct course of action is the one that leads to the highest aggregate level of individual
well-being
• Cases that brings out this topic:
o Penicillin
▪ If u have penicillin, if you use penicillin, your well-being is higher than
population
▪ If you give it to population, your well-being might be lower, but aggregate well-
being is higher
▪ Even if population lives one second longer, welfare consequentialism says we
should use it
▪ If you have limited supply of penicillin, you can either cure one person
completely, or cure population a little (save more people a bit), welfare con.
Says we should give it to population because is increases the aggregate
▪ The number of people affected and the level of well-being achieved both factor
into the aggregate
▪ If you have choice to give person A 10 more years of life, or person B 20 more
years of life, welfare con. says we give it to person B, aggregate well-being
increases
▪ If person A is more valuable (affects other people) that person A, when making
the decision, we need more information, we need to show the people person A
has an affect on into the graph that represents well-being in order to make a
decision
▪ if person A is allergic to penicillin, and causes him/her harm, and person B and C
would be cured if given to them, in this case, either everyone will be given
penicillin or no one, welfare con. says we give it to everyone because the gain of
the 2 people outweighs the person A
• the idea we are harming person A is an argument for not giving the
peiilli doig o ha
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Lecture 2: Jan/16/2018
Welfare Consequentialism
• The correct action is the one that leads to the ideal aggregate well-being
• Utilitarianism -
• Consequentialist – all the matters is the effect that an action has on the aggregate level of
individual well-being
• When people think about things with love and affection towards other people leads to a higher
aggregate welfare
• Welfare consequentialism is impartial, not altruistic
• Case: if you give the penicillin to yourself or another person will result in the same aggregate
welfare
o If I use if for myself, the I am basically saying the I am more important than the other
person and vise versa, so flipping a coin is the best way
o It is ipatial eause it sas it does’t atte ho gets it
o If ou do’t use it eause ou o if it ill ha oe peso, ou ae eig ipatial
because you are putting the harm above the good, you are caring for that one person
more
• Core Idea: Impartiality
o The good of any one individual is of no more importance than the good of another,
unless there are special grounds for believing the good of one person is more important
• The correct course of action is the optimal course of action as judged from an impartial concern
for the welfare of every individual
• Welfare consequentialism says to use it
• Hedonistic form of welfare con. is when you look at the plusses and minuses
• Example where if you do harm and aggregate welfare increases: you bully someone, and
everyone enjoys it, the aggregate increases, but you are doing harm, welfare con says you
should’t do it
What makes for a good life
• Individual well-being
o The experience machine – you have a choice to plugging into a machine that will give
you mental experiences of anything you want (reading a book, playing sports, etc),
should you plug yourself in for life?
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MGTA02H3 Full Course Notes
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