The Good

1
The Good

• Utilitarianism is a theory of right action A
  right act is one that produces the maximum
  possible good.
• A theory of right presupposes a theory of the
  good.
• Value and goodness If there were no living
  creatures, then nothing would have any value,
  because there would be no one to take an interest
  in it. We do have interests, though. Thus some
  things have positive value for you and some
  things have negative value.
• Things are of value when they make a difference
  to you.

2
Value and Goodness

• Something can be of value to other sentient
  beings.
• When something is of positive value to us we tend
  to call it good, and when it is of negative value
  we tend to call it bad.
• We have to be clear about what we mean by good.
  For example, we may call a night out drinking
  with friends good but we may also call the
  experience bad when we wake up the next morning
  with a hangover.

3
Value and Goodness

• Usually, something is good if it help us achieve
  some desire, purpose or goal.
• Is everything we call good, good as a means to
  something else? For example, if you come to
  school as a means to get good grades and you get
  good grades as a means to graduate and you want
  to graduate as a means to getting a good job then
  does this series go on forever? Is everything
  pursued as a means to something beyond itself?
• Arent there things that are good or worth
  having, not as a means to anything but for their
  own sake (good in themselves)?

4
Intrinsic good

• For example, why do you want to come to class and
  get good grades so that you can graduate and get
  a good job? Why do you want a good job? You say,
  so that I can be happy. I ask, Why do you
  want to be happy?
• That question makes no sense.An intrinsic good
  is not a means to something else. An intrinsic
  good is something worthwhile for its own sake
  alone.

5
Intrinsic good

• There is a considerable consensus that only
  states of consciousness are intrinsically good.
• G.E. Moore asks for us to imagine an uninhabited
  world. Imagine the most beautiful world that you
  can, and then imagine the ugliest world you can
  possibly conceive. Imagine it simply as one heap
  of filth. In neither world will be experienced
  by anybody, then what could it possibly
  matter?What about a world with intelligent but
  non-feeling beings? Would there be notions of
  good and evil in such a world?

6
Instrumental Good

• Instrumental good is something considered as a
  means to some other good.
• For example, Being alive might be a necessary
  condition for an intrinsic good, but being alive
  is not itself an intrinsic good. (Think of a
  person in great pain on a respirator). Thus,
  being alive is not desirable for its own sake.

7
Hedonistic Theories

• Hedonists allege two things
• All pleasure is intrinsically good.
• Nothing but pleasure is intrinsically good.
• The Hedonist will claim that all pleasure is
  intrinsically good. Of course, other things are
  good, too liberty, for example. However,
  liberty is only good instrumentally, as a means
  towards greater happiness.
• Pain as a means to pleasure. Pain is
  intrinsically bad. However, it is sometimes good
  as a means. For example, putting your finger on
  a hot stove.

8
Hedonistic Theories

• Pleasure vs. sources of pleasure
• My pleasure is spending time with my family, his
  pleasure is going for long, solitary walks. This
  is not exactly right. These are not the pleasure
  but the sources of it.
• Intrinsic good versus Moral good
• Calling something intrinsically good is not the
  same as calling it morally good. Calling someone
  a good person does not mean that she enjoys
  herself. As a matter of fact, there may be no
  correlation between a moral person and a person
  that enjoys herself a lot.

9
The Hedonistic Paradox

• The Hedonistic Paradox "Pleasure to be got must
  be forgot."

10
Quantifying Pleasures

• Jeremy Bentham wanted to develop a "moral
  science" that was more rational, objective, and
  quantifiable than most ethical theories about
  right and wrong. Bentham believed that the
  rightness of an action is determined by its
  tendency to increase pleasure and decrease pain.
• According to Bentham, the value of a pleasure or
  pain considered by itself will be greater or
  less, according to the four following
  circumstances
• Its intensity
• Its duration
• Its certainty or uncertainty
• Its propinquity or remoteness.

11
Quantifying Pleasures

• These are the circumstances that are to be
  considered in estimating a pleasure or a pain
  considered by itself. But when the value of any
  pleasure or pain is considered for the purpose of
  estimating the tendency of any act by which is
  produced, there are two other circumstances to be
  taken into the account, these are
• 5. Its fecundity, or the chance it has of being
  followed by sensations of the same kind, that is,
  pleasures, if it is to be a pleasure Pains, if
  it be a pain.
• Its purity, or the chance it has of not being
  followed by sensations of the opposite kind that
  is, pains, if it be a pleasure pleasures, if it
  be a pain.
• Bentham was attempting to lay the foundation for
  a calculus of pleasure. How successful would
  you guess that this has been? Why?

12
John Stuart Mill
It is quite compatible with the principle of
utility to recognize the fact that some kinds of
pleasure are more desirable and more valuable
than others. It would be absurd that, while, in
estimating all other things, quality is
considered as well as quantity, the estimation of
pleasures should be supposed to depend on
quantity alone. If one experience is less
pleasurable than another, and yet intrinsically
better, it would seem as if is not just pleasure
that is the criteria of the good.

13
Happiness

• What is the difference between happiness and
  pleasure?
• Pleasures tend to be evanescent.
• You know at any given moment whether you feel a
  pain or whether you are pleased by something.
  Happiness is sometimes harder to know.
• A pain is an occurent state. Happiness is more
  than an occurrent state it also involves a
  disposition to behave in a certain way.
• Call no man happy until he is dead.
• Is happiness an achievement? John Stuart Mill
  said that Socrates dissatisfied is better than a
  pig satisfied. Why is this?

14
Is Hedonism Enough?
Undeserved happiness Suppose a murderer gets
pleasure from killing people? The hedonist
believes that the worth is the same
intrinsically, but they are instrumentally
different. There is a difference between ethical
hedonism and hedonism in general. Fruitful vs.
unfruitful enjoymentsSuppose two people get an
equal amount of pleasure from two different
activities (1) throwing dishes and (2) playing
the piano.Aren't these activities of different
worth?Once again, believes the worth is the same
intrinsically. Kinds of happiness Mark Twains
story The Mysterious Stranger (page 125) Is the
happiness of insanity intrinsically good/

15
Some Criticisms of Hedonism

• Rachels example
• A promising young pianists hands are injured in
  an automobile accident so that she can no longer
  play.
• Why is this bad for her? Hedonism would say it
  is bad because it causes her unhappiness. She
  will feel frustrated and upset whenever she
  thinks of what might have been and that is her
  misfortune. But doesnt this type of reasoning
  explain things the wrong way around?

16
Some Criticisms of Hedonism

• It is not as though, by feeling unhappy, she has
  made an otherwise neutral situation into a bad
  one. On the contrary, her unhappiness is a
  rational response to a situation that is
  unfortunate. She could have had a career as a
  concert pianist, and now she cannot. That is the
  tragedy. We could not eliminate the tragedy just
  by getting her to cheer up.

17
Some Criticisms of Hedonism

• You think someone is your friend, but he
  ridicules you behind your back. No one tells
  you, so you never know. Is this unfortunate for
  you? Hedonism would have to say no, because you
  are never caused any unhappiness. Is something
  bad still going on?

18
Some Criticisms of Hedonism

• Both of these examples make the same basic point.
  We value things such as musical talent and
  friendship, for their own sakes. It makes us
  happy to have them, but only because we already
  think them good. We do not think them good
  because they make us happy.
• What do you think? Is pleasure the only
  intrinsic good. Can you think of other things
  that are intrinsically good?

19
Pluralistic theories

• What is it that makes the life of Socrates more
  worth living than that of the pig, whether
  pleasanter or not? Surely not the quality of his
  pleasure, whatever that may mean, but something
  more obvious. It is simply that in the mind of a
  great thinker we have a richer fulfillment of the
  faculties that makes us men. Brand Blanchard

20
Fulfillment

• Because we are rational animals, fulfillment
  not happiness but the fulfillment of desire has
  been thought by many to be intrinsically good.
• Some desires when fulfilled clash with other
  ones. A compulsive gambler wants to constantly
  gamble and save money for a new house.

21
Fulfillment

• To achieve maximum fulfillment of desires, then,
  we need to have our desires so selected as to be
  harmonious with one another. What is wanted is
  maximally coherent desires. But it is very
  difficult to achieve this. As with competing
  values, we often have competing desires.

22
Knowledge

• The more knowledge people have, the greater is
  the potential for instrumental good.
• Is all knowledge good?
• Instrumentally, it may not always be good.
  However, is knowledge intrinsically good?
• A person is a value pluralist if he or she
  believes that more than one kind of thing is of
  intrinsic worth for example, happiness and
  knowledge.

23
Moral Qualities

• Are moral qualities intrinsically good? Why or
  why not?