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Strengths and Weaknesses of Utilitarianism

Objections to Utilitarianism

Act Utilitarianism- An act is right if and only if it promotes the most happiness.

Rule Utilitarianism- An act is right if and only if it is required by a rule that is itself a member of a set of rules whose acceptance would lead to greater utility for society than any available alternative.

The Absurd Implications Objection

The Response

The Objection

The No-Rest Objection

A presumption of honesty will typically promote happiness. So we can come up with a rule to tell the truth unless it obviously will reduce happiness and that instance of lying not significantly weaken the rule.

Utilitarianism requires us to say that two acts are equally right if they produce the same amount of happiness, even if one of them seems intrinsically wrong (such as lying).

The Response

The Objection

The Repugnant Conclusion

Utilitarianism is too demanding because we could always be doing something that better promotes happiness.

The rules we need to develop the society that generates the most amount of happiness would rely on rules that promote happiness, such as rights to property, education, etc.

The Justice Objection

The Response

The Objection

Utilitarianism requires us to do things that violate justice.

The race riot example.

The zealous doctor example

We should follow the rule if it is unclear what will produce the best consequences. If we know what will produce the best consequences, then what's the problem?

The Integrity Objection

The Publicity Objection

The Response

The Objection

The Response

The Objection

Utilitarianism requires us to do actions that violate our most central and deeply held principles.

The Jim and the Indians example.

1) Who says you can't be obligated to do things that violate your integrity? That's what produces moral dilemmas

2) Utilitarianism can be self-effacing.

Publicity need only be a heuristic to solve coordination problems; it can be ignored for utility.

Utilitarianism can tell you to not obey utilitarianism.

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