33:140:320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Fecundity
29 Oct 2015
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The moral life: an introductory reader in ethics and literature. Jeremy bentham and later given more plausibility by english philosopher john. Seaman holmes and the longboat of william brown: william brown, a boat holding 17 crew and 65 passengers was sinking. Then the next morning holmes saw a boat and called it over and everyone was saved: at trial the first-mate and most seamen disappeared so only holmes was being tried for manslaughter. A defense of utilitarianism- kai nielsen: argues that it is the consequences that determine the moral worth of an action. Negative responsibility ; we are responsible not only for the consequences of our actions but also for the consequences of our nonaction. In the case of the innocent fat man the death of the fat man is the lesser evil and the death of the others is the greater evil.
