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What is Utilitarianism? David Pearce Explains
by Science, Technology & the Future
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David Pearce discusses various forms of Utilitarianism
and there (sometimes less obvious) implications.
== Hedonistic Utilitarianism: "A utilitarian theory which
assumes that the rightness of an action depends entirely
on the amount of pleasure it tends to produce and the
amount of pain it tends to prevent. Bentham's
utilitarianism is hedonistic. Although he describes the
good not only as pleasure, but also as happiness,
benefit, advantage, etc., he treats these concepts as
more or less synonymous, and seems to think of them as
reducible to pleasure. John Stuart Mill's utilitarianism,
also described as hedonistic, differs importantly from
Bentham's in taking some pleasures to be higher than
other ones, so that when considering the values of the
consequences of an action, not only the quantity but also
the quality of pleasure has to be considered. This
complicates the summing up, or may even make it
impossible." - The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy
== Negative Utilitarianism: Ethical negative-
utilitarianism is a value-system which challenges the
moral symmetry of pleasure and pain. It doesn't question
the value of enhancing the happiness of the already
happy. Yet it attaches value in a distinctively moral
sense of the term only to actions which tend to minimise
or eliminate suffering. This is what matters above all
else. The doctrine is counter-intuitive, not least
insofar as it entails that from a purely ethical
perspective it wouldn't matter if nothing at all had
existed, or everything ceased to exist. Indeed, if the
option were humanly available, the logic of the position
morally obligates bringing the world to an end were this
the only way to banish the suffering endemic to it.
Happily, there is a much better way to rid the natural
world of its endemic nastiness. This is to use
biotechnology to eradicate aversive experience in all
sentient life. Life-long happiness can be genetically pre-
programmed. In the post-Darwinian Era, applied
nanotechnology will extend hedonic engineering to all
life-forms on the planet.
Following through the logical implications of this
seemingly bizarre and perverse perspective is clearly not
for the faint-hearted. Yet negative utilitarianism
doesn't derive from self-hatred or some nihilistic death-
wish. It stems instead from a deep sense of compassion at
the sheer scale and intensity of suffering in the world.
No amount of happiness or fun enjoyed by some organisms
can notionally justify the indescribable horrors of
Auschwitz. Nor can it outweigh the sporadic frightfulness
of pain and despair that occurs every second of every day.
Read more at: see: http://www.hedweb.com/negutil.htm
The instrumental case from means-ends rationality derives
from the broad applicability of psychological hedonism.
This isn't here
construed as a universal law. It's just a trite everyday
rule of thumb: we spend a lot of time trying to make
ourselves happy. Often we fail.
HI achieves what we're striving for with unique
efficiency and success. The ethical utilitarian case for
HI, on the other hand,
rests partly on a conception of how morality can be
naturalised consistently with a recognisably scientific
account of the nature of the world. Value is here
construed as a distinctive - and biologically maximisable
- mode of experience. Its subjective texture is coded by
a particular type of biomolecular architecture. That
architecture can be enriched and extended. Positive value
can be maximised. Negative value can eventually be
eliminated. Thus HI, it will be claimed, amounts to
rather more than one individual's quirky conjectures and
value-judgements. The biological program is also our
natural destiny. The coming of the pain-free post-
Darwinian
Era will mark both a major transition in the evolution of
life and the moral foundation of any future civilisation.
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Date Published: 2023-05-05 02:11:22
Identifier: youtube-PF8NuhHkHtY
Item Size: 146056092
Media Type: movies
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