Utilitarianism

The principle of utility is...

• the greatest happiness of all those whose interest is in question, as being the right and proper... end of human action.

• the greatest happiness of all those whose preference is in question, as being the right and proper... end of human action.

• the greatest happiness of all those whose interest is at risk of abandonment, as being the right and proper... end of human action.

Bentham described "utility" as...

• the property of being practically useful.

• the extent of the usefulness of an object.

• a property bringing benefit, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness.

Bentham's approach to happiness was...

• qualitative.

• quantitative.

• qualified.

Mill said that we would prefer higher pleasures if...

• people in authority direct us to them.

• our basic physical needs are met.

• we have also experienced lower pleasures.

Mill's approach to happiness was...

• qualitative.

• quantitative.

• qualified.

Smart says Mill's approach is not purely hedonistic as it asserts that...

• happiness is pleasure we approve of.

• happiness can vary according to opinion.

• preferences for certain types of pleasure come into play.

Who imagined a machine that could produce the experience of a happy life and asked if one would choose to stay attached to it, if the machine took away the knowledge that the life it "gave" wasn't real?

• Smart

• Moore

• Nozick

Two ways preference utilitarianism is non-hedonistic are...

• it is satisfying preferences, not maximizing pleasure.

• we can be satisfied without pleasure being involved.

• it says that nothing is entirely pleasurable.

The two stages of Mill's "proof" of utilitarianism are...

• Everyone wants to be happy, so happiness for everyone is good.

  Only happiness, which comes when we find things that cause happiness in themselves, is truly good.

• Everyone wants to be happy, so happiness is good.

  Happiness is the final "end" in a "successful" life.

• Everyone finds happiness in the same basic things, so happiness is good.

  Only happiness, which comes when we find something that causes happiness in itself, is truly good.

Bentham suggested that animals' happiness...

• is irrelevant.

• matters just as much as humans'.

• is secondary to humans'.