UTILITARIANISM !

Before we cover what utilitarianism is we have to remember what Ethics mean
Ethics is the study of whats

History of Utilitarianisms
-First came out in the 19nth century
-Two famous Utilitarians where Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
-The term Utilitarianism was first appointed by Bentham

Some quotes...

“The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest-Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.”
― John Stuart Mill

“...the rarest of all human qualities is consistency.” -Jeremy Bentham

THE ESSENTIAL IDEA OF UTILITARIANISM IS

• Happines is the absence of pain
• Pain is the absence of pleasure
• Utilitarianism consist in caring about everyones happines
• NOT just our our own

Utilitarianism can be demanding because it implies that a person should always act a certain way that is going to take them to a path of being HAPPY

Examples of utilitaranism
-should we provide access to healthcare for everyone?
Will the number of people affected by this outweigh the neggative effects ?

BUT...IT GETS TRICKY

What would you do?

-If you had to take care of your mom's cat and it died
What would you tell her ? That it ran away or the truth ?
What would you do for the sake of her happiness?

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CITATIONS

• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/utilitarianism-history/
• http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/utilitarianism%20notes.htm
• Google images
• http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15241c.htm

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