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Single Idea 3928
[filed under theme 23. Ethics / E. Utilitarianism / 1. Utilitarianism
]
Full Idea
The sole trouble which virtue demands is that of just calculation, and a steady preference for the greater happiness.
Gist of Idea
Virtue just requires careful calculation and a preference for the greater happiness
Source
David Hume (Enquiry concerning Principles of Morals [1751], IX.II.228)
Book Ref
Hume,David: 'Enquiries Conc. Human Understanding, Morals', ed/tr. Selby-Bigge/Nidditch [OUP 1975], p.279
A Reaction
Hume was the parent of utilitarianism. Can one person exhibit virtue on a desert island?
The
37 ideas
with the same theme
[belief that good is maximising happiness]:
6218
|
The happiness of individuals is linked to the happiness of everyone (which is individuals taken together)
[Cumberland]
|
6220
|
The happiness of all contains the happiness of each, and promotes it
[Cumberland]
|
6245
|
That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest number
[Hutcheson]
|
3928
|
Virtue just requires careful calculation and a preference for the greater happiness
[Hume]
|
7214
|
Ethics rests on utility, which is the permanent progressive interests of people
[Mill]
|
7202
|
The English believe in the task of annihilating evil for the victory of good
[Nietzsche on Mill]
|
5935
|
Mill's qualities of pleasure is an admission that there are other good states of mind than pleasure
[Ross on Mill]
|
3764
|
Actions are right if they promote pleasure, wrong if they promote pain
[Mill]
|
3776
|
Utilitarianism only works if everybody has a totally equal right to happiness
[Mill]
|
4129
|
It is self-evident (from the point of view of the Universe) that no individual has more importance than another
[Sidgwick]
|
14811
|
In Homer it is the contemptible person, not the harmful person, who is bad
[Nietzsche]
|
24106
|
Talk of 'utility' presupposes that what is useful to people has been defined
[Nietzsche]
|
9258
|
If pain were instrinsically wrong, it would be immoral to inflict it on ourselves
[Prichard]
|
5907
|
Relationships imply duties to people, not merely the obligation to benefit them
[Ross on Moore,GE]
|
5912
|
We should use money to pay debts before giving to charity
[Ross]
|
22405
|
Negative utilitarianism implies that the world should be destroyed, to avoid future misery
[Smart]
|
22463
|
Morality is seen as tacit legislation by the community
[Foot]
|
4010
|
In later utilitarianism the modern stress on freedom leads to the rejection of paternalism
[Taylor,C]
|
22407
|
Utilitarianism cannot make any serious sense of integrity
[Williams,B]
|
23278
|
For utilitarians states of affairs are what have value, not matter who produced them
[Williams,B]
|
3279
|
Utilitarianism inappropriately scales up the individual willingness to make sacrifices
[Rawls, by Nagel]
|
8038
|
Since Moore thinks the right action produces the most good, he is a utilitarian
[MacIntyre]
|
3782
|
Satisfaction of desires is not at all the same as achieving happiness
[Glover, by PG]
|
9762
|
We should focus less on subjects of experience, and more on the experiences themselves
[Parfit]
|
18624
|
Utilitarianism is not a decision-procedure; choice of the best procedure is an open question
[Kymlicka]
|
18626
|
One view says start with equality, and infer equal weight to interests, and hence maximum utility
[Kymlicka]
|
18627
|
A second view says start with maximising the good, implying aggregation, and hence equality
[Kymlicka]
|
3542
|
We should do good when necessary, not maximise it
[Annas]
|
4280
|
Utilitarianism is wrong precisely because it can't distinguish animals from people
[Scruton]
|
4281
|
Utilitarianism says we can't blame Stalin yet, but such a theory is a sick joke
[Scruton]
|
4282
|
Morality is not a sort of calculation, it is what sets the limits to when calculation is appropriate
[Scruton]
|
4287
|
Utilitarianism merely guides us (by means of sympathy) when the moral law is silent
[Scruton]
|
4328
|
Preference utilitarianism aims to be completely value-free, or empirical
[Hursthouse]
|
4338
|
Deontologists usually accuse utilitarians of oversimplifying hard cases
[Hursthouse]
|
4343
|
We are torn between utilitarian and deontological views of lying, depending on the examples
[Hursthouse]
|
20583
|
If maximising pleasure needs measurement, so does fulfilling desires
[Tuckness/Wolf]
|
20584
|
Desire satisfaction as the ideal is confused, because we desire what we judge to be good
[Tuckness/Wolf]
|