More Larson Ethics Notes from February 4th

• Philosophers who believe that ethics comes from the community therefore believe that it is social.
  
• When we make an ethical choice, we use the following formula: intent (motive), act (means), result (end)
• Motive: why we do something
• Means: the method we choose to use
• End: what is actually accomplished or done

• EGOISM: act in our long-term benefit, in our best interest.
  
• There are three divisions to egoism:
• Psychological Egoism: look out for number one
• you can't help acting in your own self-interest
• there is no altruism (altruism is doing good for someone or something else completely leaving us out of the picture)
• Personal Egoism: (soliptic)
• I am the center of reality. The end result comes back to me
• Philosophic Egoism:
• we have a duty to act in our long-term best interest
• what goes around comes around
• Ethics criteria should include:
1. tell us what to do
2. tell us why we did it
   

A great Larson example:

• If you push this button O , you get a zillion dollars. However, ten people scattered all over the globe will die if the button is pushed.
  
• is it prescriptive??
• certainly it is money vs. conscience

UTILITARIANISM

• Jeremy Bentham

• A leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law and one of the founders of utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham was born in Houndsditch, London on February 15, 1748. He was the son and grandson of attorneys, and his early family life was colored by a mix of pious superstition (on his mother's side) and Enlightenment rationalism (from his father). Bentham lived during a time of major social, political and economic change. The Industrial Revolution (with the massive economic and social shifts that it brought in its wake) the rise of the middle class, and revolutions in France and America all were reflected in Bentham's reflections on existing institutions. In 1760, Bentham entered Queen's College, Oxford and, upon graduation in 1764, studied law at Lincoln's Inn. Though qualified to practice law, he never did so. Instead, he devoted most of his life to writing on matters of legal reform--though, curiously, he made little effort to publish much of what he wrote.

  Bentham spent his time in intense study, often writing some eight to twelve hours a day. While most of his best known work deals with theoretical questions in law, Bentham was an active polemicist and was engaged for some time in developing projects that proposed various practical ideas for the reform of social institutions. Although his work came to have an important influence on political philosophy, Bentham did not write any single text giving the essential principles of his views on this topic. His most important theoretical work is the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), in which much of his moral theory--which he said reflected "the greatest happiness principle"--is described and developed.

  In 1781, Bentham became associated with the Earl of Shelburne and, through him, came into contact with a number of the leading Whig politicians and lawyers. Although his work was admired by some at the time, Bentham's ideas were still largely unappreciated. In 1785, he briefly joined his brother Samuel in Russia, where he pursued his writing with even more than his usual intensity, and he devised a plan for the now infamous "Panopticon"--a model prison where all prisoners would be observable by (unseen) guards at all times--a project which he had hoped would interest the Czarina Catherine the Great. After his return to England in 1788, and for some 20 years thereafter, Bentham pursued--fruitlessly and at great expense--the idea of the panopticon. Fortunately, an inheritance received in 1796 provided him with financial stability. By the late 1790s, Bentham's theoretical work came to have a more significant place in political reform. Still, his influence was, arguably, still greater on the continent. (Bentham was made an honorary citizen of the fledgling French Republic in 1792, and his The Theory of Legislation was published first, in French, by his Swiss disciple, Etienne Dumont, in 1802.)

  The precise extent of Bentham's influence in British politics has been a matter of some debate. While he attacked both Tory and Whig policies, both the Reform Bill of 1832 (promoted by Bentham's disciple, Lord Henry Brougham) and later reforms in the century (such as the secret ballot, advocated by Bentham's friend, George Grote, who was elected to parliament in 1832) reflected Benthamite concerns. The impact of Bentham's ideas goes further still. Contemporary philosophical and economic vocabulary (e.g., "international," "maximize," "minimize," and "codification") is indebted to Bentham's proclivity for inventing terms, and among his other disciples were James Mill and his son, John (who was responsible for an early edition of some of Bentham's manuscripts), as well as the legal theorist, John Austin.

  At his death in London, on June 6, 1832, Bentham left literally tens of thousands of manuscript pages--some of which was work only sketched out, but all of which he hoped would be prepared for publication. He also left a large estate, which was used to finance the newly-established University College, London (for those individuals excluded from university education--i.e., non-conformists, Catholics and Jews), and his cadaver, per his instructions, was dissected, embalmed, dressed, and placed in a chair, and to this day resides in a cabinet in a corridor of the main building of University College. He requested that his friends watch the dissection to challenge the idea of his time that dissecting bodies was against the law. Therefore, medical science could not properly develop without body dissection. The Bentham Project, set up in the early 1960s at University College, has as its aim the publishing of a definitive, scholarly edition of Bentham's works and correspondence.
  

ACTIVE UTILITARIANISM

• It is our duty to choose that action which results in the greatest happiness (social benefit) for the greatest number of people affected by the action and that it would benefit each person the same.
  
• Remember: duty is a verb
• Duty is the call to action in order to best interest society

• We are all looking for happiness

• Happiness Criteria:
  
• sum total of our pleasures
• happiness is the absence of pain for the greatest number. It is providing security, food, and shelter.
• the more people who benefit, the better

• Foreseeability:
• we look toward the consequences of our actions

• The Equality Principle
• rich or poor
• man or woman
• black or white
• etc.
• has this right

• Duty is not to us, the individuals, but to society

• promotes a social conscience
• equality for all
• creates a moral framework for decision-making

Stupid, stupid, stupid me... I have misplaced the rest of the notes. I will look for them, and if I can't find them I will borrow copies made by other members of the class. But, I would like to add the following, it has to do with Bentham's Theory of Punishment. He thought the degree of punishment should be proportional to the level of wrong-doing. The degree of punishment should be such that the level of pain inflicted for criminality outweighed the benefits gained from the illegal activity.