Welcome back
Welcome back to our second session on utilitarianism. This time, we are going to be talking about John Stuart Mill, who gives a much more sophisticated and compelling account of utilitarianism than Bentham. And we are going to explore these two contrasting approaches to ethics: deontology and utilitarianism.
Discussing Mill
Here are some questions we’ll explore about Mill:
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How does Mill’s utilitarianism differ from that of Bentham?
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How does Mill define “utility”?
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What is Mill saying about higher and lower pleasures? And who gets to decide?
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Mill distinguishes between quantitative accounts of pleasure and qualitative. Does this resolve some of the issues in Bentham’s work?
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For Mill, is sacrificing our own pleasure ever acceptable? Why / why not?
Debate
I’m now going to put you into two big groups. We’ll have Utilitarians and Deontologists. In your large groups, you have a short while to ask about:
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What arguments can you find in favour of your particular approach to ethics?
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What possible objections are there?
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How might you answer these objections?
Then we’ll have a tag-team debate. So we’ll toss a coin to see which team starts. I’ll select several judges at random.
In the debate, the first speaker will have 90 seconds to set out their argument, and to ask one question / present one challenge to their opponent. After this, the judges will give their marks in the chat, from 1 - 5 per judge, where 5 is the best, and 1 is the worst. I’ll add up the points, which will go to that team.
Now, somebody from the other team will respond. They must respond to the question, before putting their own argument and ending with their own question / challenge. Again, the judges will offer their points, and I’ll add them to the team’s score.
At the end, the last person can end with a statement, not a question. Again, the judges will grade the final answer.
We’ll add up the scores and see which side of the debate has won!
Homework
No homework today! Take a break! We’ll have a quiz in the next class, and also a briefing for the mid-term.