Chapter 13: The Utilitarian: John Stuart Mill Archetypes of Wisdom Douglas J. Soccio Chapter 13: The Utilitarian: John Stuart Mill Social Hedonism Modern utilitarianism developed as a response to social conditions created by the Industrial Revolution, which created a class of workers whose jobs were repetitious, dangerous and poorly paid – i.e., degrading and dehumanizing.
Get a quote for Archetypes of Wisdom 7th edition. Chegg does not guarantee supplemental material with. Or search our site for other textbooks by Douglas J. From Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy, 8th Edition by Douglas J. Chapters 5, 6, and 8.
Hordes of workers sought in the mill towns and cities, creating large slums. High rents resulted in overcrowding, as poorly paid workers lived two and three families to an apartment. Thomas Malthus In 1798, Thomas Malthus ( ), an Anglican minister, published An Essay on the Principle of Population as It Affects the Future Improvement of Society. In it Malthus expressed grave doubts about the feasibility of social reform. Malthus argued that although food production increases arithmetically, unchecked population growth progresses geometrically. Troubled by the growing slums, Malthus concluded that the only way to avoid such harsh “natural cures” as war and epidemics was to stop helping the poor and remove all restraints on the free enterprise system.
The law of supply and demand would make it difficult for the poor to marry early or support many children, thereby checking the rapid rise in population growth. Philosophy & Social Reform It was in this context that Jeremy Bentham ( ) directly challenged the owners, bosses, and ruling classes when he insisted that “each counts as one and only one”. Bentham blasted those in power for pursuing their own narrow, socially destructive goals, instead of pursuing happiness for everyone.
His solution was to establish democratic rule by the whole people, rather than by a select class. The Principle of Utility Bentham attempted to base his philosophy on careful observation of social conditions and actual human behavior. Like Aristippus before him, Bentham saw that pain and pleasure shape all human activity. So So Def Bass Allstars Vol 2 Rar Vietnam. In An Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation, he introduces “the principle of utility”: that we should “Act always to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number.” Sometimes referred to as the pleasure principle, the principle of utility uses psychological hedonism (that pain and pleasure determine what we do) to develop an ethical hedonism (that these alone point to what we ought to do).
The Hedonic Calculus Bentham wanted to make ethics a science. To that end, he formulated “the hedonic calculus,” introducing mathematical precision to the difficult task of weighing alternative courses of action. For this, Bentham proposed “units” of pleasure or pain, called “hedons” (which today are often referred to as “utiles”). When contemplating an action, one calculates the pleasure and pain for those affected in terms of seven elements: intensity, duration, propinquity, certainty, fecundity, purity, and extent. Allj Slots 2 2 Cracked. Bentham believed each of us already uses hedonic calculation on an intuitive level, and that he was simply adding scientific rigor to our informal methods of choosing pleasure and avoiding pain. The Utilitarian Calculus Math and ethics finally merge: all consequences must be measured and weighed. Units of measurement: Hedons: positive Dolors: negative What do we calculate?