PHIL 2131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Consequentialism
4 Apr 2016
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Measuring well-being: to know whether an action is morally required we must. Add up all of the bene ts it produces. Add up all of the harm it causes. See whether the balance is greater than that of any other available action: often we don"t have all the information needed by steps 1 and 2 (bene ts and harm, how do we measure bene ts and harms. How do we choose between increasing happiness and respecting autonomy, if both have intrinsic value. Autonomy has an instrumental value even to people who believe that happiness is the only intrinsic value. Autonomy and happiness are on a par and are both intrinsically valuable: how do you decide which should have more value. Utilitarianism is very demanding: deliberation, motivation. Distinguish between decision procedure and standard of rightness: most consequentialists believe that consequentialism fails as a decision procedure. What about the autonomy of suffering people? your money can help them : action.
