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Single Idea 3262

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / E. Utilitarianism / 3. Motivation for Altruism ]

Full Idea

Utilitarianism is too demanding.

Gist of Idea

Utilitarianism is too demanding

Source

Thomas Nagel (The View from Nowhere [1986], X.5)

Book Ref

Nagel,Thomas: 'The View from Nowhere' [OUP 1989], p.205

The 8 ideas with the same theme [reasons why other people's feelings matter]:

3923 No one would cause pain to a complete stranger who happened to be passing [Hume]
3924 Nature makes private affections come first, because public concerns are spread too thinly [Hume]
3770 General happiness is only desirable because individuals desire their own happiness [Mill]
2884 The morality of slaves is the morality of utility [Nietzsche]
4501 Utilitarianism criticises the origins of morality, but still believes in it as much as Christians [Nietzsche]
22404 Any group interested in ethics must surely have a sentiment of generalised benevolence [Smart]
4124 Utilitarian benevolence involves no particular attachments, and is immune to the inverse square law [Williams,B]
3262 Utilitarianism is too demanding [Nagel]