Bentham said ‘the principle of utility aims to promote happiness which is the supreme ethical value.’ In determining how to measure different amounts of pleasure and deciding on the right and good thing to do Bentham came up with the Hedonistic Calculus. This was a calculus to weigh up pain and pleasure and a way of testing whether an action is morally right, one that results in the most pleasurable outcome. It is measured in a quantitative way. Looking at the quantity of happiness produced from the action. It consists of seven key elements which measure different aspects of happiness.
It is therefore not surprising that the grounding for this notion has been the subject of heavy debate. Taking central stage in the history of this debate are Hume and Kant and their examinations of the concept have been very influential. I will attempt to show how they unfold their different conceptions of cause and effect and how the two compare to each other. A note on Terminology: While Hume and Kant discuss more or less the same subject matter they do as most philosophers, discuss it in their own (or that most native to them) terminology. For sake of clarity I shall utilise the concepts of each in their respective sections.
These constant changes are the result of ideologies of great scientists and philosophers who have contributed their very particular perspective, bringing these claims to a set of different points of view in which specific criteria are spelled out. This paper is intended to highlight the contributions that each of these characters proposed in order to establish, standardize and explain all the events, what is now considered the foundation of our scientific and technical culture. The importance of these thinkers lies in the influence even today. And as explanatory procedure have made countless procedures, which has been refined to the point that we know as definitive scientific method. The old ideal of science Aristotle and many more Greeks played an important role in defining what we now know as science and hence the relevance of mentioning their contributions when discussing issues of scientific philosophy and all that it concerns.
• Beneficence refers to the ethical obligation to maximize benefits and to minimize harms and wrongs. • Justice refers to the ethical obligation to treat each person in accordance with what is morally right and proper, to give each person what is due to him or her. II.) The circumstances that deceit is allowable and the criteria that must be met: • The participant is honestly and fully informed about the requirements of their participation before they participate in
All actions are related to an underlying principle. Kantian thought supports the idea that the actions are justified by a set of rules outlined in Kantianism. Utilitarianism is based on the idea of a greater good. Positive and negative consequences are quantified and the most positive consequence for the greatest amount of people is chosen, sometimes at the expense of others. For utilitarian school of thought, an individual strives to do the most good, even at the expense of the minority.
Running Head: Preservation and Transmission of Greek Philosophy in the Middle Ages Preservation and Transmission of Greek Philosophy In the Middle Ages Antilkumar Gandhi Professor Fleming Religion and Philosophy Introduction Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry in the study of the natural world. Many philosophers today concede that Greek philosophy has shaped all of Western thought since its inception. As Alfred Whitehead once noted, with some exaggeration, "Western philosophy is just a series of footnotes to Plato," (Brickman, 1961). Clear and unbroken lines of influence lead from Ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers, to medieval Muslim philosophers, and to the European Renaissance and Enlightenment. Early Greek philosophy, in turn, was influenced by the older wisdom literature and myths of the Near East.
These classical thinkers derove their reasonning from personnal observations. These reasonings for enlightenment thinkers refer to the rationalle of people such as Thomans Hobbs, John Locke Voltaire, Galileo Galilei and Sir Isaac Newton among others. This rationalism is based on deductive logic. Deductive logic involves reasoning from the general to particular and applying theory to a particular case. The scientists create a a theory and then make some observations that either refute or support the theory.
1. Introduction When it comes to the world of philosophy, one knows to look at the foundations set about by the philosophers of Ancient Greece. It was their work and their theories that has significantly shaped and influenced what we today know as Western philosophy. This essay will focus on one particular branch of philosophy, namely epistemology i.e. the theory of knowledge, and attempt to discuss the development of different theories of philosophers ranging from pre-Socratic to post-Aristotelian Ancient Greece.
“Utility is found in everything which contributes to the happiness of every rational being” (Utilitarian Philosophy, 2010). In very simplistic terms, utilitarianism can be described as the balancing of good outcomes over harmful ones for greatest number of people. In other words, it is the greatest happiness for the greatest number of individuals (LaGrone, 2015). The concept of utilitarianism emphasizes the fact that a human being’s actions are right when they increase the good. In one of the abstracts in Bentham’s Principles of Morality and Legislation, Bentham states that the judgement or criterion of good and evil is balanced between the happiness of individuals and the happiness of the community (Utilitarian Philosophy, 2010).
Aristotle also suggests happiness conforms to goodness of virtue (Kucukuysal and Beyhan, 2011). To be happy and good, one must make the right choices. Virtue is taught and learned. The ability to define happiness and decide what is virtuous is an individual choice based upon life teachings and experience. In order to make someone else happy, you must be happy with yourself.