If we hold all pleasures to be equal, we could form a strong argument for going to that steak dinner instead of putting it towards a class you need to graduate, earning a degree which will develop your character, widen your awareness of the world, and better prepare you to navigate our society successfully. Let’s imagine you receive a fifty-dollar bill for your birthday and want to go out for a nice steak dinner. You can imagine how different the moral analysis would be depending upon the definition of the good. For instance, we might say that the good is “any and all pleasures” or “only long-term rational well being”. There are multiple ways we can answer those questions. For whom are we trying to maximize the good?.What is the good we are trying to maximize?.When we start to do this sort of analysis, we must ask ourselves two questions: Consequentialism(s)Ĭonsequentialism is the notion that it is the outcomes of our actions that matter the most in moral analysis, not the action themselves nor our motivations. As a normative ethical theory, Utilitarianism suggests that we can decide what is morally right or morally wrong by weighing up which of our future possible actions promotes such goodness in our lives and the lives of people more generally. Winning the lottery, marrying your true love or securing a desired set of qualifications all seem to be examples of events that improve a person’s life. Some things appear to be straightforwardly good for people. Therefore every pleasure is good because it is of one nature with us but every pleasure is not to be chosen by the same reasoning every pain is an evil but every pain is not such as to be avoided at all times. Therefore, my problem could be categorized as wrong act since it causes pain to most parties involved.Pleasure is the beginning and the end of the happy life: because we recognize pleasure as the first good and connate with us and to this we have recourse as to a canon, judging every good by the reaction. In conclusion, an action would be morally accepted as right on the basis that it results in happiness for most parties involved. This category would not apply to my problem since there is no means of calculating and adding up the pain for every person involved. Lastly, the category of extent is the measure of the effect of an action on the parties it affects. For instance, my problem is recurrent and emerges from the previous encounters. Purity, the sixth category is quite ambiguous since each pain, seems to be produced by the pain before it. This category would apply to my problem as well. However, the category of propinquity would also depend on experience to some extent since it focuses on the duration one has to wait for pleasure to happen. In reference, to the category of certainty it is possible to apply the calculus in resolving my problem since experience would serve as a guide in tackling the issue. In fact, it is possible to approximate physical pain in terms of minutes, but psychologically inward experience does not show the perception of time. Secondly, the duration category of the calculus falls short on my problem since Bentham’s concept does not consider the psychological subjectivity of time in which pain is perceived. Place an order Live chat Hedonic Calculus Strengths and Weaknesses However, I would have no way to estimate the value of pleasure out of the self-pride in calling names of my peers. In my case, the peers who are victims of my bitter exchange of words would be able to establish the mental turmoil caused by the exchange of words. An individual is asked to match the felt pain against the pain scale. Using Bentham’s Hedonic Calculus, my problem would apply to the first category in my attempt to identify the intensity of pleasure or pain my action causes.Īlthough intensity can be possibly measured, it only possible to approximate pain by using a scale, but pleasure it definitely immeasurable. The problem is that I feel my ego hurt so much when a peer downplays my opinion that it leads to a bitter exchange of words. In most cases, I fall out with them due to lack of understanding in our arguments on various social issues. Personally, I have a grief problem in associating with peers. Using this concept, it would be simple to identify acts, which have the best tendencies and consequently right. Ideally, the next step is a consideration of the alternative causes of the action. Want to make sure we can complete your complex assignment?
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