The New Consequentialism

1
Lecture 7

• The New Consequentialism

2
Important Recent Neo-Kantians and their major
works

• Thomas Nagel
• The Possibility of Altruism and The View from
  Nowhere
• Christine Korsgaard
• The Sources of Normativity
• Tim Scanlon
• What We Owe to Each Other

3
The Classical Utilitarians

• Jeremy Bentham (1748 1832)
• John Stuart Mill (1806 1873)
• Henry Sidgwick (1838 --1900)

4
Utilitarianism

• The Principle of Utility
• Act always so that you bring about the greatest
  happiness of the greatest number

5
Utilitarianism

• Features of Classical Utilitarianism
• Consequentialist
• Maximizing
• Hedonistic Theory

6
Utilitarian Calculation
Units of happiness for
Actions
Jones
Smith
Roberts
Total
Act 1
22
22
22
66
Act 2
121
20
98
3
Act 3
340
329
12
- 23
7
Utilitarianism

• Classical Objections to Utilitarianism
• It fails to respect the differences among
  persons.
• It is impossible to quantify pleasure or
  satisfaction.
• It asks too much of our predictive power.
• It is too demanding.

8
Important Recent Consequentialists and Their Works

• Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons
• Sam Scheffler, The Rejection of Consequentialism
• Shelly Kagan, The Limits of Morality
• Peter Singer, Practical Ethics