ECON 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Political Philosophy, Intentionality, Consequentialism
Document Summary
Idea: reach the greatest happiness for the greatest number: promotion of pleasure and prevention of pain, hedonistic understanding of happiness, happiness is all that ultimately matters consequentialist / teleological view, positive: Plausibility of happiness as an intrinsic value. Equality (recognition of everyone"s happiness and every happiness counts equally: negative: Measurement is problematic (not possible to measure or compare different kinds of utility of different persons) Reductions of individuals to metric stations instead of seeing them as moral agents. Limited (or no) protection of rights (sacrificing the few for the benefit of the many) Increasing population in order to maximize utility (falsified outcome) Solution: maximize average utility instead of total utility (but: killing individuals with low utility could increase average utility: conclusion: The state is there for us and should ensure that our lives go well. Idea that the state should promote the general welfare seems attractive. Welfare: welfare = indicates how well your life is going for you.
