| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Bentham | Together with Mill he is considered one of the founders of utilitarianism, known for his liberalism |
| Nozick | was an american professor at Harvard and prominent in the 1970s and 1980s. known for the experience machine and utility monster |
| utility monster | capable of maximizing the amount of pleasure from a given resource 100 times better than everyon else ought to be given such resources at the expense of everyone else. |
| Setting the stage: conceptualizing utilitarianism | utilitarianism is generally speaking a consequentialist moral theory that judges the moral worth of actions based on the extent to which they promote utility (i.e hapiness) Bentham will point out that actions that promote happiness/utility ae said to be good/right and those that diminsh it bad/wrong |
| Setting the stage: conceptualizing utilitarianism | all utilitarians are consequentialists but not all consequentialists need be utilitarians. Insofar as utilitarianism seeks to maximize future good, it is said to be teleological |
| teleological | right and good, what is of fundamental importance (i.e what we must figure out) is the good (i.e. what we want and desire to bring about--wich in th case of utilitarianism happens to be utility/happiness) only after what we discover id good can we then determine what is right. |
| deontological | what is right then what is good |
| rule utilitarianism | suggests that he right action at any given time is whatever action is in accord with general rules that are thought to be most conducive to the greates utility/happiness when generally followed |
| act utilitarianism | suggests that the right action at any given time is whatever action is thought to yield the greatest utility/happiness in that particular instance |
| hedonism | the philosophical theory that places the pursuit of pleasure above all else |
| psychological hedonism | is a descriptive theory that claims people are motivated by their desire for pleasure/happiness |
| ethical hedonism | is a prescriptive theory that claims people ought to act in accordance with this desire for pleasure/happiness |
| utility principle | bentham: foundation of utilitarianism. states that individuals, societies and governments ought to act in a manner that yields the greatest happiness fot the greatest number of people. |
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