Philosophy notes 1 Classic Utilitarianism Classic utilitarians held hedonistic act consequentialism Act consequentialism is the claim that an act is morally right if and only if that act maximizes the good that is if and only if the total amount of good for all minus the total amount of bad for all is greater than this net amount for any incompatible act available to the agent on that occasion Hedonism then claims that pleasure is the only intrinsic good and that pain is the only intrinsic bad Together these claims imply that an act is morally right if and only if that act causes the greatest happiness for the greatest number as the common slogan says Consequentialism whether an act is morally right depends only on consequences as opposed to the circumstances or the intrinsic nature of the act or anything that happens before the act Actual Consequentialism whether an act is morally right depends only on the actual consequences as opposed to foreseen foreseeable intended or likely consequences Direct Consequentialism whether an act is morally right depends only on the consequences of that act itself as opposed to the consequences of the agent s motive of a rule or practice that covers other acts of the same kind and so on Evaluative Consequentialism moral rightness depends only on the value of the consequences as opposed to non evaluative features of the consequences Hedonism the value of the consequences depends only on the pleasures and pains in the consequences as opposed to other goods such as freedom knowledge life and so on Maximizing Consequentialism moral rightness depends only on which consequences are best as opposed to merely satisfactory or an improvement over the status quo Aggregative Consequentialism which consequences are best is some function of the values of parts of those consequences as opposed to rankings of whole worlds or sets of consequences Total Consequentialism moral rightness depends only on the total net good in the consequences as opposed to the average net good per person Universal Consequentialism moral rightness depends on the consequences for all people or sentient beings as opposed to only the individual agent members of the individual s society present people or any other limited group Equal Consideration in determining moral rightness benefits to one person matter just as much as similar benefits to any other person all who count count equally Agent neutrality whether some consequences are better than others does not depend on whether the consequences are evaluated from the perspective of the agent as opposed to an observer 2 What is Good Hedonistic vs Pluralistic Consequentialisms Quantitative hedonists sometimes respond that great poetry almost always creates more pleasure than trivial games or sex and drugs and rock and roll because the pleasures of poetry are more certain durable fecund and so on This qualitative hedonism has been subjected to much criticism including charges that it is incoherent and does not count as hedonism 4 Which Consequences Actual vs Expected Consequentialisms
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