Teleological / consequentialist ethics
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Question
Teleological / consequentialist ethics?
Answer
The right act is the one with the best results — the most good, the least harm.
Question
Utilitarianism?
Answer
The right act produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number, counting everyone equally.
Question
Bentham's principle?
Answer
The greatest happiness for the greatest number — add up pleasure and pain, everyone counts equally.
Question
Mill's higher vs lower pleasures?
Answer
Higher (thought, art, friendship) beat lower (food, comfort): 'better a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied'.
Question
Why did Mill add pleasure-quality?
Answer
To answer the worry that pure pleasure-counting makes ethics just about simple thrills.
Question
Mohist consequentialism?
Answer
An early Chinese ethics judging acts by benefit to society — order, wealth, welfare of all, not individual pleasure.
Question
The classic objection to utilitarianism?
Answer
Pure results-counting could justify sacrificing one innocent person to make many others happier.
Question
Why cite the Mohists here?
Answer
They show results-based ethics arose independently in ancient China, centuries before Bentham.
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Topic 4.1 hub
Normative ethics
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