Mills highly regarded book, aptly titled utilitarianism 1863. Perhaps the most outwardly simple school of thought, utilitarianism is not a new idea, and at least to a degree, it is largely intuitive. Utilitarian superheroes, villains, other comic book characters religion in comics. Im that feminist friend in my group of mostly female friends. A critique of utilitarianism essaysbernard williams critique of utilitarianism focuses on addressing a major philosophical problem posed by utilitarianism. More often than not, an introduction to basic ethical theory includes a mention of the trolley problem, an ethical dilemma so iconic that it has even become a meme. Hicks trotted that cartoon out for me a few columns back. Iv the standard criticisms of utilitarianism i describe these criticisms by considering how a sophisticated indirect decisionmaking utilitarian like hare could reply. Magneto offers a twentyyear deal to emma for the hellfire corporations services.
I found that this book was helpful and a good alternative to personally checking out the book from a library. Utilitarianism does not take into account rights and. And yeah, i have serious issue with it, especially recently. Heres how john stuart mill states the greatest happiness principle in his book, utilitarianism. As a moral basis for some decision making i think utilitarianism could have use in society today, however, as moral theory i do not think that it upholds and the problems within it are insurmountable. Im tending to think that ill still come back to some of the arguments in the book, several of which get repeated in the recent post at why evolution is true, but without kind of continuing line by line through that post. It offers a simplicity that many other philosophical approaches lack and in particular cuts through the mish mash of moral rules favoured by deontological thinkers. Hellfire, brimstone and the perverse the new york times. Utilitarianism is the assumption that human beings act in a way that highlights their own self interest. For and against jim is a botanist working deep in a jungle in a south american country when he gets separated from the rest of his group. The key normative standard for right conduct, according to utilitarianism, is the greatest happiness principle. In hard times, the ideas behind utilitarianism, statistical economics, and the way they may shape government and educational policy all run together to present a bleak future for the children raised under them.
John stuart mills book utilitarianism is a philosophical defense of utilitarianism in ethics. The hellfire club often comes into confrontation with the. Religion of comic book characters listed by religious group. Mills aim in the book is to explain what utilitarianism is, to show why it is the best theory of ethics, and to defend it against a wide range of criticisms and misunderstandings. Utilitarianism traces the doctrine of utility from the moralists of the ancient world, through the enlightenment and victorian utilitarianism up to the. Surely no one wants a vast number of people dying from war.
The essay provides support for the value of utilitarianism as a moral theory and defends it against a wide range of criticisms and misunderstandings. Rather than trying to maximize utility, which is difficult to measure from person to person. Smashwords utilitarianism a book by john stuart mill. The obvious criticism is that the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people described as the yardstick of utilitarianism might entail some egregious injustice on a minority or individual. But versions of these replies can also appeal to rule utilitarianism. Smart, extreme and restricted utilitarianism bernard williams, utilitarianism and integrity.
What is the criticism that rule utilitarianism collapses. The essay first appeared as a series of three articles published in frasers magazine in 1861 vol. Longmans, green, reader, and dyer, 1871 utilitarianism 120 pages. Organ harvest, fat man, and sophisticated act utilitarianism.
Or is this a case of rule utilitarianism in action. Criticisms of utilitarianism iv the standard criticisms. The dark phoenix saga is an extended xmen storyline in the fictional marvel comics universe, focusing on jean grey and the phoenix. Utilitarianism is a classic exposition and defense of utilitarianism in ethics. Part 7 of 9 the xmen infiltrate the hellfire club but things go wrong. Have a look at the strengths and weaknesses of utilitarianism bentham the hedonic calculus there are some circumstances when you can usefully use the calculus as a guide to determining the overall effects of a course of action, such as in choosing how to spend lottery money, or in deciding how to prioritise medical procedures in a hospital. Buy utilitarianism by mill, john stuart, sher, george isbn. Personal integrity p1 if utilitarianism is true, then jim is morally obligated to kill the one native himself. Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall utility.
Known for his contributions in metaphysics, ethics and the philosophy of mind, smart presents very discerning and interesting arguments in the article distinguishing the act and rule of utilitarianism. Tormented in the afterlife, but not forever the new york times trial by fire hell beneath. Written with undergraduates in mind, this is an ideal course book for those studying and. Caroline, under act utilitarianism extreme utilitarianism, even if the man saves the dog, he might not have acted in the most optimific way, but in the end, he still did an honorable thing and would be praised for his actions in order to promote a future action that is similar, hopefully one that is more optimific. What are some criticisms towards ethical utilitarianism. The essay first appeared as a series of three articles published in frasers magazine in 1861. The criticisms i have mention in this essay are not exhaustive. While military experts have supported some of these criticisms, an examination.
Browse the amazon editors picks for the best books of 2019, featuring our favorite reads. In other words, an action has no intrinsic value, it is not intrinsically good or bad, but only valued based on how it affects the welfare of the people. The hellfire club is a fictional society appearing in american comic books published by marvel comics. Rule utilitarianism is largely put forth as part of an effort to resolve certain socalled paradoxes of act utilitarianism where the specific actions which are described as maximizing utility are intuitively morally repugnant. Many philosophers have pondered the concept of whether or not act utilitarianism can withstand the criticism of puzzles which. Utilitarian superheroes, villains, other comic book characters. Criticisms of utilitarianism intuitively speaking, utilitarianism appears to be an extremely attractive philosophy. In his novel, notes from the underground, dostoyevsky made a strong objection to this style of ethics, imploring us to imagine a world where utilitarianism as a project was finished. Utilitarianism bases morality solely on the consequences of acts. The post doesnt have a lot thats new, and the book has more detailed and definitive versions of the arguments. The ruleadvocates idea is that the repugnant actions dont follow the right rule.
According to utilitarian theory actions can only be carried out if they produce the greatest amount of happiness. No stranger to experimenting on human lives, particularly those of mutants, the nefarious mr. Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by project gutenberg. If we decide consequentialism utilitarianism is the right theory, then we may still debate what things are good happiness, etc. My introduction to philosophy class is covering utilitarianism. Translating the comic books humor and hellfire for.
Surveying the historical development and the present condition of utilitarian ethics, geoffrey scarre examines the major philosophers from lao tzu in the fifth century bc to richard hare in the twentieth. Those who idealize these social sciences imagine a logical world run according to the dictates of the marketplace. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Carritt criticisms of utilitarianism carrittutitilitarianism jjc smart extreme and restricted utilitarianism smartextremerestricted darwall contractualism vs. More than other genres, sciencefiction can serve as a laboratory for moral philosophy, because it allows us to take principles and look at them in realities beyond our own. There are different versions of utilitarianism, but we just cover the basic idea. In 1915, the twisted geneticist mister sinister exploited the. In 1859, londons inner circle was forced into a brief alliance with the mutant conqueror apocalypse. Utilitarian utilitarian superheroes, villains, and other characters. To accommodate for the plethora of information already accessible, this article will deal only with john s. Criticisms of utilitarianism ocr religious studies. A critique of consequentialism jared rudolph consequentialist ethical theories have been an essential part of ethical, political, and legal reasoning since before jeremy bentham advanced the theory of utilitarianism. Contractarianism handed out in class hobbes leviathan excerpts hobblev1 jean jacques rousseau the social contract. When they created the master of kung fu to dizzying heights of cinematic comicbook storytelling, doug moench and paul gulacy defined a new era of comic.
The perfect world was created and it was known what would make us the most happy. Utilitarianism in science fiction sample wordpress portfolio. The hellfire club is a centuries old organization with roots in britain during the 18th century. Utilitarianism is a well worn field, and it can be very difficult to find wellrounded responses and arguments. In addition, because the hellfire missiles fired from drones often incinerate the. The comic book scare and the new criticism by jared gardner may 25, 2012 the following is excerpted from chapter 3 fanaddicts and the comic book, 19381955 of projections. Posted on october 7, 2014 by jialin yu leave a comment. When cable saves reporter irene merryweather from the hellfire club, he learns of their plot to slay. Utilitarianism, john stuart mill john stuart mills book utilitarianism is a classic exposition and defense of utilitarianism in ethics. A common objection to utilitarianism is the inability to quantify, compare, or measure happiness or wellbeing. However,taken by themselves, consequences canjustify acts that most of us would condemn.
The basic idea then would then be to argue that if people follow rules that have the best consequences, they would not act in ways described in. Dickens provides three vivid examples of this utilitarian logic in hard times. John stuart mills book utilitarianism is a classic exposition and defence of utilitarianism in ethics. The project gutenberg ebook of utilitarianism, by john. Organ donor, fat man, and sophisticated act utilitarianism is it always right to place the many as more important than the one. Utilitarianism is a philosophy, formally developed in the late 1700s by jeremy bentham, based on the notion that an action is deemed good or bad, valuable or not, based on its consequences. Slade, the grandson of the phantom rider and a member of the secret.
Rawls also has some good arguments against classical utilitarianism as justice in. Comics and the history of 21stcentury storytelling, a new book from tcj s jared gardner, published by stanford university press. Thomas gradgrind, one of the main characters in the book, was the. Yeah, i could dedicate a whole other blog to going off on sexism in comic books. Utilitarianism claims that the right actions are those that maximize utility. P2 jim is not morally obligated to kill the one native himself. Do we come up with a rule that works in many reallife situations, and then we apply it to the full range of situations even where the utilityharming factors justifying the rule are not actually present, as in the fantasy example of two comic book characters. As an economist, i take some liberties to redefine utility as something cardinal and knowable, instead as a set of circumstances and preference. Etrigan the demon is a fictional superhero and antihero appearing in american comic books. Since the utilitarian theory suggests pursuit of the greatest good, but does not discuss the equality inequality of distribution most common criticisms of utilitarianism of this happiness among individuals, it is widely criticized.
Utilitarianism by geoffrey scarre, 1996 online research. Criticisms of consequentialism 916 and 918 criticisms of. Utilitarian stories criticisms of utilitarianism hokmah. The new amc drama, based on a comicbook series, might even make the walking dead look a bit tame. Utilitarianism utilitarianism is a moral theory that was developed by jeremy bentham 17481832 and john stuart mill 18061873. Because utilitarianism is not a single theory but a cluster of related theories that have been developed over two hundred years, criticisms can be made for different reasons and have different targets. Another criticism on utilitarian theory is the unequal distribution of happiness. Therefore, there is a fundamental weakness of making moral decisions based solely on consequences. Nprs book concierge is your guide to 2018s best reads.
There are also many criticisms of utilitarianism and consequentialism in general that arent specific to mills work. Utilitarianism according to mill, to determine whether one pleasure is more valuable than another, we must a. The fundamental fact is that we do not think some pleasures, such as that of cruelty, good at all. Herbert spencer, in a private communication on the subject of the preceding note, objects to being considered an opponent of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism just seems to naturally appeal to me. That corporation would be emmas hellfire corporation. Utilitarianism 1st edition geoffrey scarre routledge. Actions are judged to be good or bad by looking at their consequences. It went through four editions during mills lifetime with minor additions and revisions. It is based on factuality and leaves little room for imagination. Unfortunately, he also happens on an execution about to be. Van rhyn, the bombs had been dropped to shorten the pacific war, to eliminate the need for an invasion of the japanese home islands, which was scheduled for november 1, 1945, and to save 1 million american lives 681. Geoffrey scarre considers these and other charges, and concludes that whilst utilitarianism may not be a faultless moral doctrine, its positions are relevant, and significant today.
1550 311 1070 1308 483 461 1088 1490 856 277 1257 1037 1115 889 173 1373 764 1334 266 805 504 67 377 40 818 331 826 321 1476 860 1248 1001 700 1113 1422 340 1385 1437