Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• Moral theories
– explain WHY these things are right and wrong, and
– give me REASONS for believing them so
The “right” decision, action, or policy is often defined as the one that
optimizes the balance of benefits over harms for all affected. For
example:
• Hedonism – a moral
theory “fit for swine”
• Atheistic – leaves out
God
(and by extension, any
higher-order moral
considerations)
• Promotes selfishness –
calculus of pure self-
interest
Bentham’s rebuttal: Vulgar or not, nature has placed us under two
masters, pleasure and pain - there is no other standard
Those who walk away…
LeGuin won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1974
Modern Criticisms
Is this what
Mill
really meant?
The Principle of Utility
• An act is right if, and only if, it • An act is right if, and only if, it
results in as much good as any is required by a rule that is
available alternative itself a member of a set of
rules, whose acceptance will
lead to greater utility for
society than any other
available alternative.
Pojman – 151-152
So how do you measure good/bad
consequences?
• The principle of utility (or Principle of Greatest Happiness) says:
– “The greatest happiness of all of those whose
interest is in question, is the right and proper, and
universally desirable, end of human action.”
• Happiness can then be looked at either long term or short term, physical
pleasure or intellectual happiness
• IS IT LOGICAL? INTUITIVE?
• IS THIS A MORAL THEORY YOU CAN USE TO
MAKE DECISIONS?
– Is pleasure vs pain the right metric?
• WHAT IS UTILITARIAN REASONING BASED ON?
– CONSEQUENCES – (OUTCOMES) – TELEOLOGICAL
Option$
A B C
Person A $100 $33.33 $80
Person C $0 $33.33 $0
Triage
Medical Triage Example
But…
if your principle as C.O. is protect the lives of
your men/women, then how do you justify
giving the order to intentionally kill one of
your men?
• 2 Options
– Send the second helo
– Don’t risk another rescue
• What is right?
• How did you decide?
Reading & Homework for Next Class
Intro to Military Justice