Aristotle Shmaristotle
This Greek word means both “virtue” and “excellence.”
What is aretē?
This ethical theory claims that the right action maximises overall utility.
What is utilitarianism?
This broad family of ethical theories evaluates actions according to their outcomes.
What is consequentialism?
Aristotle claims that moral virtue develops through repeated action, a process known as this.
What is habituation?
Mill distinguishes between higher pleasures and these more bodily or sensory pleasures.
What are lower pleasures?
Aristotle’s ethical theory begins by asking this question about the person we should become.
What kind of person should I become?
For Mill, happiness consists of pleasure and the absence of this.
What is pain?
A consequentialist considers the available actions, their foreseeable outcomes and this feature of each outcome.
What is its value?
Aristotle says that people become builders by building and musicians by doing this.
What is playing music or playing the harp?
According to Mill, these people determine which of two pleasures is qualitatively superior.
Who are competent judges?
This is Aristotle’s term for the highest human good, often translated as flourishing or living well.
What is eudaimonia?
Utilitarianism is described as this because each person’s happiness must be considered equally.
What is impartial?
Consequentialism does not require certainty about the future, but it does require decisions based on these.
What are reasonable predictions?
Complete Aristotle’s claim: “By doing just actions we come to be…”
What is just?
Mill argues that it is better to be this dissatisfied philosopher than a satisfied fool.
Who is Socrates?
Aristotle distinguishes moral excellence from this second kind of excellence, which develops largely through teaching and experience.
What is intellectual excellence?
This principle states that actions are right insofar as they tend to promote happiness.
What is the Greatest Happiness Principle?
From a consequentialist perspective, choosing not to intervene is still morally significant because these also have consequences.
What are omissions?
Repeated actions form habits, which then develop into these stable features of character.
What are dispositions?
Critics claim that Mill’s theory is a doctrine worthy only of these animals.
What are swine or pigs?
This stable tendency of character shapes how a person perceives, feels, chooses and acts.
What is a disposition?
Utilitarianism is both consequentialist and this because it treats pleasure and freedom from pain as intrinsically valuable.
What is hedonistic?
This criticism argues that utilitarianism may require us to sacrifice too much of our own time, resources or wellbeing whenever doing so would increase overall happiness.
What is the demandingness objection?
This apparent problem arises because Aristotle seems to claim that we become just by performing just actions, even though genuinely just actions may require an already just character.
What is circularity?
This criticism of Mill asks whether competent judges prefer higher pleasures because they are higher, or whether those pleasures are called higher only because competent judges prefer them.
What is the circularity objection?