Download or read book A New Approach to Utilitarianism written by C.L. Sheng and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1.1 Utilitarian Theories This book is a monograph on moral philosophy and social philosophy, particularly the part of the philosophy of economics that is related to the general distribution problem. It presents a comprehensive ethical theory, together with an application of the theory to distributive justice. The viewpoint of this theory is utilitarian. However, this theory is different in some crucial points, as well as in minor details, from all existing forms of utilitarianism. Moral philosophy deals essentially with the moral judgment of actions, i. e., whether a moral action is right or wrong, good or bad. The judgment is usually based on a line of logical reasoning, which can be traced to a final reason called the justification or ultimate principle. An ethical theory is a self-consistent system built upon a basic, or ultimate, principle. An ultimate principle can never be rigorously proven, and is not unique. Different philosophers establish different ethical theories upon different principles. Therefore, in the history of development of moral philosophy, there have been a large number of ethical theories and schools. Even wi thin the same school having the same ultimate principle, different philosophers may have different versions of the theory, because of small variations in the interpretation of the ultimate principle or in the elaboration of the details.
Download or read book Utilitarianism written by John Stuart Mill and published by London : Parker, Son and Bourn. This book was released on 1863 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utilitarianism, by British philosopher John Stuart Mill, is one of his most influential works and is a philosophical defense of utilitarian ethical theory. This publication remained a relevant publication since its original publication in the mid 19th century, as is still relevant in the application of utility in regard to social policy. This is an important work for those studying the concept of utilitarianism, or those who are interested in the writings of John Stuart Mill.
Download or read book A New Approach to Utilitarianism written by Qinglai Sheng and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1991 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I: A Unified Utilitarian Theory.- 1 Introduction.- 1.1 Utilitarian Theories.- 1.2 A New Scientific Approach to Utilitarianism.- 1.3 Difficulties with Utilitarianism.- 1.4 Deduction and Statistics.- 1.5 The Importance of Normative Ethics.- 1.6 Moral Philosophy and Social Philosophy.- 1.7 The Scope of This Book.- 2 A Particular Interpretation of Utilitarianism.- 2.1 The Problem of Interpretation.- 2.2 Good and Right - Positive and Negative Duties.- 2.3 The Flexible Nature of Morality and a Classification of Situations of Action.- 2.4 Schism of Utilitarianism and Interpretation of the Ultimate Criterion.- 2.5 Implications of Flexibility and Reformulation of Utilitarianism.- 2.6 The Importance of Virtues.- 3 Basic Principles.- 3.1 Basic Principles.- 3.2 Prima Facie Nature.- 3.3 Strictness of Rules in Ethical Theories.- 3.4 The Principle of Utility.- 3.5 The Principle of Nature.- 3.6 Principle of Coexistence.- 4 A Theory of Value.- 4.1 Establishing a Theory of Value.- 4.2 The Problem of Determination of Utility and Value.- 4.3 Classification of Values.- 4.4 Clarification of Some Concepts Related to Utility.- 4.5 Definition of Utility.- 4.6 General Properties of Value.- 4.7 Comparison with Existing Theories of Value.- 4.8 On Right, Obligatory and Ought.- 5 Decision-Making and Moral Action.- 5.1 The Nature of Decision-Making.- 5.2 Applications of Decision-Making.- 5.3 Additive and Multiplicative Weights.- 5.4 Feeling of Moral Satisfaction as a Decisive Factor in Moral Decision-Making.- 5.5 Decision-Making under Conditions of Uncertainty.- 5.6 Utility and Utility Functions.- 5.7 Clarification of the Concepts of Value and Utility.- 5.8 A Mathematical Model for Moral Decision-Making.- 6 Moral Judgment and Justification.- 6.1 The Statistical Nature of Moral Judgment.- 6.2 Value of Moral Principle, Virtue, or Moral Rule.- 6.3 Value of Consequences of a Moral Action.- 6.4 Moral Value of the Feeling of Moral Satisfaction.- 6.5 Value of Motive or Intention.- 6.6 Value of a Moral Action.- 6.7 Value of a Person.- 6.8 Justification for Moral Judgment.- 6.9 On Mill's "Proof" of the Principle of Utility.- 6.10 An Answer to "Why Do We Take Moral Actions?".- 7 Comparisons with Other Theories.- 7.1 Comparison of the Unified Utilitarian Theory with Existing Forms of Utilitarianism.- 7.2 Brief Comparison of Utilitarianism and Deontologism.- 7.3 Defense of Utilitarianism Against Charges Raised by Rights-Theorists and Other Nonutilitarianism.- 7.4 Arguments Against Rights-Theory.- 7.5 Utilitarian Interpretation of Absolute Rights.- 8 Summary, Refutation of Objections, and a General View.- 8.1 Summary of the Unified Utilitarian Theory.- 8.2 Refutation of Objections to Utilitarianism.- 8.3 Compatibility of Utilitarianism with the Principle of Justice.- 8.4 A New Look at Moral Philosophy.- 8.5 Scientific Approach and Systems Theory.- II: A Utilitarian Theory of Distributive Justice.- 9 The General Distribution Problem and Distributive Justice.- 9.1 Various Distribution Problems.- 9.2 Income and Wealth.- 9.3 Freedom, Right, Conflict and Justice.- 9.4 Equality As a Crude Criterion for the Resolution of Conflict.- 9.5 Existing Views of Distributive Justice.- 9.6 A Utilitarian Theory of Distributive Justice.- 10 Maximization of Utility and the Objective Function.- 10.1 The Other Sense of Utility and Marginal Utility.- 10.2 Law of Diminishing Incremental Interest.- 10.3 Utility of Money Versus von Neumann-Morgenstern Utility.- 10.4 A General Utility Function.- 10.5 Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility.- 10.6 On Normalization and Terminal Utilities.- 10.7 On Recent Developments in Utility and Risk Theory.- 10.8 The Social Welfare Function as an Objective Function.- 11 The Constraint.- 11.1 Optimization and Constraint.- 11.2 Comments on Pareto Optimality as a Constraint.- 11.3 Comments on Rawls' Difference Principle.- 11.4 Constant Total Value as a Constraint.- 11.5 The Dynamic Nature of Distribution.- 11.6 Utilitarianism Is Not Indifferent to Distribution.- 1...
Download or read book A New Approach to Utilitarianism written by C. L. Sheng and published by . This book was released on 1991-07-31 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Utilitarianism written by Ben Eggleston and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-30 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utilitarianism, the approach to ethics based on the maximization of overall well-being, continues to have great traction in moral philosophy and political thought. This Companion offers a systematic exploration of its history, themes, and applications. First, it traces the origins and development of utilitarianism via the work of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Henry Sidgwick, and others. The volume then explores issues in the formulation of utilitarianism, including act versus rule utilitarianism, actual versus expected consequences, and objective versus subjective theories of well-being. Next, utilitarianism is positioned in relation to Kantianism and virtue ethics, and the possibility of conflict between utilitarianism and fairness is considered. Finally, the volume explores the modern relevance of utilitarianism by considering its practical implications for contemporary controversies such as military conflict and global warming. The volume will be an important resource for all those studying moral philosophy, political philosophy, political theory, and history of ideas.
Download or read book Forms and Limits of Utilitarianism written by David Lyons and published by Oxford : Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1965 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forms and Limits of Utilitarianism
Download or read book Reasons Patterns and Cooperation written by Christopher Woodard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-11-24 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about fundamental questions in normative ethics. It begins with the idea that we often respond to ethical theories according to how principled or pragmatic they are. It clarifies this contrast and then uses it to shed light on old debates in ethics, such as debates about the rival merits of consequentialist and deontological views. Using the idea that principled views seem most appealing in dilemmas of acquiescence, it goes on to develop a novel theory of pattern-based reasons. These are reasons to play one’s part in some larger pattern of action because of the goodness or rightness of that pattern. Existing accounts of pattern-based reasons usually assume that such reasons can exist only in cooperative contexts. This book rejects that assumption, and claims instead that we can have pattern-based reasons even when the other agents involved in the pattern are wholly unwilling to cooperate. The result is a pluralist teleological structure for ethics, with similarities to some forms of Rule Consequentialism. Woodard claims that this structure achieves an attractive balance between the two virtues of being pragmatic and being principled.
Download or read book Utilitarianism and Its Critics written by Jonathan Glover and published by Macmillan College. This book was released on 1990 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Taking Utilitarianism Seriously written by Christopher Woodard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-06 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utilitarianism is the idea that ethics is ultimately about what makes people's lives go better. While utilitarian ideas remain highly influential in politics and culture, they are subject to many well-developed philosophical criticisms, such as the claim that utilitarianism requires too much of us and the view that it does not respect individuals' rights. The theory is widely thought by philosophers to be the least plausible form of consequentialism, hampered by its excessive simplicity. In Taking Utilitarianism Seriously, Christopher Woodard argues that it is not defeated by the standard objections. He presents a new and rich version of utilitarianism that can answer all six commons objections plausibly and, in doing so, launches a state-of-the-art defence of the utilitarian tradition, which has greater resources than its critics have often assumed. Far from being excessively simple, utilitarianism is able to account for much of the complexity and nuance of everyday ethical thought. And rather than being quickly dismissed, utilitarian approaches to moral and political philosophy are due for renewed development and discussion.
Download or read book Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals written by Immanuel Kant and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 1993-06-15 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This expanded edition of James Ellington’s preeminent translation includes Ellington’s new translation of Kant’s essay Of a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns in which Kant replies to one of the standard objections to his moral theory as presented in the main text: that it requires us to tell the truth even in the face of disastrous consequences.
Download or read book Moral Philosophy A Contemporary Introduction written by Daniel R. DeNicola and published by Broadview Press. This book was released on 2018-11-30 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moral Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction is a compact yet comprehensive book offering an explication and critique of the major theories that have shaped philosophical ethics. Engaging with both historical and contemporary figures, this book explores the scope, limits, and requirements of morality. DeNicola traces our various attempts to ground morality: in nature, in religion, in culture, in social contracts, and in aspects of the human person such as reason, emotions, caring, and intuition.
Download or read book Utilitarianism A Very Short Introduction written by Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-20 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utilitarianism may well be the most influential secular ethical theory in the world today. It is also one of the most controversial. It clashes, or is widely thought to clash, with many conventional moral views, and with human rights when they are seen as inviolable. Would it, for example, be right to torture a suspected terrorist in order to prevent an attack that could kill and injure a large number of innocent people? In this Very Short Introduction Peter Singer and Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek provide an authoritative account of the nature of utilitarianism, from its nineteenth-century origins, to its justification and its varieties. Considering how utilitarians can respond to objections that are often regarded as devastating, they explore the utilitarian answer to the question of whether torture can ever be justified. They also discuss what it is that utilitarians should seek to maximize, paying special attention to the classical utilitarian view that only pleasure or happiness is of intrinsic value. Singer and de Lazari-Radek conclude by analysing the continuing importance of utilitarianism in the world, indicating how it is a force for new thinking on contemporary moral challenges like global poverty, the treatment of animals, climate change, reducing the risk of human extinction, end-of-life decisions for terminally-ill patients, and the shift towards assessing the success of government policies in terms of their impact on happiness. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book Utilitarianism and the Ethics of War written by William H. Shaw and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a detailed utilitarian analysis of the ethical issues involved in war. Utilitarianism and the Ethics of War addresses the two basic ethical questions posed by war: when, if ever, are we morally justified in waging war, and if recourse to arms is warranted, how are we permitted to fight the wars we wage? In addition, it deals with the challenge that realism and relativism raise for the ethical discussion of war, and with the duties of military personnel and the moral challenges they can face. In tackling these matters, the book covers a wide range of topics—from pacifism to armed humanitarian intervention, from the right of national defense to pre-emptive or preventive war, from civilian immunity to the tenets of just war theory and the moral underpinnings of the rules of war. But, what is distinctive about this book is that it provides a consistent and thorough-going utilitarian or consequentialist treatment of the fundamental normative issues that war occasions. Although it goes against the tide of recent work in the field, a utilitarian approach to the ethics of war illuminates old questions in new ways by showing how a concern for well-being and the consequences of our actions and policies shape the moral constraints to which states and other actors must adhere. This book will be of much interest to students of the ethics of war, just war theory, moral philosophy, war and conflict studies and IR.
Download or read book Ethics for A Level written by Mark Dimmock and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2017-07-31 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does pleasure have to do with morality? What role, if any, should intuition have in the formation of moral theory? If something is ‘simulated’, can it be immoral? This accessible and wide-ranging textbook explores these questions and many more. Key ideas in the fields of normative ethics, metaethics and applied ethics are explained rigorously and systematically, with a vivid writing style that enlivens the topics with energy and wit. Individual theories are discussed in detail in the first part of the book, before these positions are applied to a wide range of contemporary situations including business ethics, sexual ethics, and the acceptability of eating animals. A wealth of real-life examples, set out with depth and care, illuminate the complexities of different ethical approaches while conveying their modern-day relevance. This concise and highly engaging resource is tailored to the Ethics components of AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies, with a clear and practical layout that includes end-of-chapter summaries, key terms, and common mistakes to avoid. It should also be of practical use for those teaching Philosophy as part of the International Baccalaureate. Ethics for A-Level is of particular value to students and teachers, but Fisher and Dimmock’s precise and scholarly approach will appeal to anyone seeking a rigorous and lively introduction to the challenging subject of ethics. Tailored to the Ethics components of AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies.
Download or read book Morality Utilitarianism and Rights written by Richard B. Brandt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1992-06-26 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Brandt is one of the most eminent and influential of contemporary moral philosophers. His work has been concerned with how to justify what is good or right not by reliance on intuitions or theories about what moral words mean but by the explanation of moral psychology and the description of what it is to value something, or to think it immoral. His approach thus stands in marked contrast to the influential work of John Rawls. The essays reprinted in this collection span a period of almost 30 years and include many classic pieces in metaethical and normative ethical theory. The collection is aimed at both those moral philosophers familiar with Brandt's work and at those philosophers who may be largely unfamiliar with his work. The latter group will be struck by the lucid unpretentious style and the cumulative weight of Brandt's contributions to topics that remain at the forefront of moral philosophy.
Download or read book Utilitarianism and Beyond written by Amartya Sen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1982-06-10 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utilitarianism considered both as a theory of personal morality and a theory of public choice.
Download or read book Hedonistic Utilitarianism written by Tannsjo Torbjorn Tannsjo and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-08 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a comprehensive statement in defense of the doctrine known as classical, hedonistic utilitarianism. It is presented as a viable alternative in the search for a moral theory and the claim is defended that we need such a theory. The book offers a distinctive approach and some quite controversial conclusions. Torbjorn Tannsjo challenges the assumption that hedonistic utilitarianism is at variance with common sense morality particularly as viewed through the perspective of the modern feminist moral critique.
