PHIL 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: First Statement
Document Summary
Acts are right as they tend to produce happiness, wrong as they tend to produce unhappiness. Acts are not necessarily right if they produce happiness. If a(cid:374) actio(cid:374) produces (cid:373)ore happi(cid:374)ess tha(cid:374) u(cid:374)happi(cid:374)ess, it"s ge(cid:374)erally (cid:374)ot (cid:374)ecessarily right you could have other options where no unhappiness is produced. You"re supposed to rank your options on how much happiness you produce. Act in a way to produce the most happiness for everyone, not really for yourself. Happiness - period of time with lots of pleasures and not many pains. Objection - seems like utilitarians would advocate for brave new world. Most valuable pleasures are actually friendships, intellectual concepts, having virtue. Right as they promote happiness, wrong as they promote unhappiness. Looking for overall happiness, not just your own. P1 is better if p1 + pain or discomfort > p2. P1 is better if p1 > any quantity of p2. Will never experience perfection, don"t want to go down.
