PHL201H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Act Utilitarianism, Meta-Ethics, Ethical Subjectivism
Document Summary
Plato the immoralist"s challenge (from the republic) Distinction between: intrinsic good food for its own sake, instrumental good - good because it gets you something (ex. money) Knowledge its intrinsically valuable and helps you get things2. Something can be both intrinsically and instrumentally good. Glaucon argues that justice is instrumentally good. We desire it because of what it can get us success, fame, fortuce etc. Glaucon claims that people naturally want to do injustice, but not have injustice done to them. Being unjust gives one an advantage (ex. stealing money rather than working for the money) People would suffer more badness rather than have goodness. The bad resulting from suffering from injustice outweighs the good obtained by inflicting it. If one could do injustice without consequences it would be irrational not to do injustice. If everyone did injustice all the time, society would break down. Laws command is what we call just.
