Benthams Hedonism
What does it mean to be a hedonist?
To take or make pleasure central to life
1. Rejection of Common Religious views
2. Materialism
What is mills account of hedonism?
What is haybrons account of hedonism?
What is haybrons account of hedonism?
Qualitative hedonism: different kinds of pleasures. some better some worse
Attitudinal pleasure is a kind of pleasure
Your overall emotional state is whats most important
What is local desire satisfactionism?
the relevant objects of desire are our many specific desires
Calculated through the ratio of how many desires of ours is fullfilled and not. (experience requirement)
What are subjective and objective views on happiness?
Subjective views: take happiness to be a purely
descriptive, subjective, psychological term.
Objective views: take happiness to be a normative value that is objective and picks out something like well-being or flourishing
What approach does Bentham take to hedonism and what he say about happiness?
Quantitative hedonism happiness can be measured or quantified and that the way we do this is to measure the quantity of our pleasures and our pains. Happiness can be calculated like math
The Cārvākians and the Epicureans differ in 3 main points which are?
1. Active and Static Pleasure
2. Attitudes about Pain
3. Immediacy versus Longevity
Compare and contrast Mill and Benthams hedonism with Feldmans
Bentham and Mill: pleasures and pains are feelings.
Feldman: pleasures and pains are experiences -
some of those experiences are feelings and some of
those experiences are attitudes
What are first and second order desires?
Whats an example of both?
Entire list of our immidate desires
Wanting to want your first order desire
I have the first order of desire to smoke but the second order desire to have the desire to not smoke
Here my second order desire dissaproves of my first
What are central and peripheral affects? Examples?
Central affects: are deep, profound, and pervasive,
e.g. emotions and moods like joy, grief, exhilaration, shame, contentment, stress, feeling confident,
feeling despondent.
Peripheral affects: are shallow, superficial, or trivial,
e.g. amusement, minor annoyance, minor physical
pains and pleasures
Why is Benthams hedonism self defeating?
because if you follow Bentham’s advice
for how to maximize pleasure over the course of
your life, you’ll actually end up reducing the
amount of pleasure you could have experienced. Why??
What consists of the Cārvākians 4 elements theory: the only things that exist are...
or
What theory do the Epicureans take in contrast?
earth, air, fire, and water
and everything is a combination of these
the only things that exist are atoms, void, and things that are combinations of atoms and void.
How does mill describe higher pleasures?
- Those that employ our higher
faculties like moral judgment, aesthetic
appreciation, political engagement, and rational
contemplation.
- Or, in other words, the pleasures that are a result of the exercise of our humanity
What does the local desire satisfactionist say about Feldmans attuidnal pleasures?
Attitudinal pleasure as proposed by Feldman is not really a kind of pleasure – it is an instance of desire satisfaction.
Delores wanted a reduction in her pain levels and she got it.
Upshot: Attitudinal Hedonism doesn’t solve the problems it’s supposed to because our attitudes are actually instances of desire satisfaction. The felt pleasures for Feldman are actually just our local desires being satisfied.
Inductive reasoning: A good instance of inductive reasoning gets you to a highly probable, but not a certain claim/conclusion
Deductive reasoning: starts from general principles and ends with a specific claim. Must be 100% given the premises
What are the 3 Fundamental commitments about pleasure and pain for bentham
1. Pleasures are all the same in KIND as other pleasures and pains are all the same in KIND as other pains.
2. Pleasant experiences differ from each other in terms of
amount of pleasure and painful experiences differ from each other in terms of amount of pain.
3. There are many dimensions to determining how much pleasure and pain are in an experience.
How do Carvākians take their approach on pleasure - Radical hedonism
1. Focus on active pleasure (joy/kama)
2. Avoidance of pain should not be what determines
whether you pursue some pleasure or not
3. Live in the moment and enjoy the immediacy of ‘now’
What is the objection to Feldmans hedonism and how does he respond to it?
We can accept that prior attitudes are sometimes true. But whether or not I feel pain when I, for example, touch a hot stove by accident or break my arm doesn’t depend on my prior attitudinal stance. The pain is immediate!
2 Ways Feldman Can Respond
1. These cases actually do depend on our logically prior attitudinal stances, but they happen so quickly that we don’t notice.
2. Allow that the objector is right about intense and sudden pleasures and pains, but deny that these happen oftenenough to matter to his argument.
What is whole life satisfactionism and how do we calculate happiness on this perspective
The relevant object of desire is our life generally going the way we want it to.
We calcualte this by using the average of our happiness.
"happiness is indexed to the
second order desire that our important/selected first order desires have been satisfied"
We are happy when the desires on that list are fulfilled
What is Modus Ponens
Modus Ponens (the mode that by affirming, affirms) Affirming the Antecedent
You usually do Modus Ponens in premise 2 of an argument
P1: If P, then Q
P2: P (so, here, we are simply just saying we have P. Modus Ponens)
C: Q(and we know now if we have P we have Q based on P1)
Bentham claims that when deciding which pleasures to pursue we need to consider the following factors. What are these 8 factors?
i) intensity: the measure of the degree or strength of felt intensity
ii) duration: the measure of how long the experience lasts
iii) certainty: the probability that one will experience the anticipated pleasure or pain
iv) propinquity: how far is the pleasure or pain removed from us in time (future versus immediate gratification) Bentham
v) fecundity: the probability the experience has for leading to similar experiences.
vi) purity: the probability the experience has for NOT leading to the opposite experience
vii) extent: refers to the number of people who are affected by our actions
viii) affective space: whether the pain or the pleasure comes from an aroused or a serene state.
What approach do the Epicureans take on hedonism - frugal hedonism
1. Focus on static pleasure and attempt to achieve
tranquility (ataraxia) which is the state of being
entirely free from pain.
2. The guiding principle of all your actions should be the avoidance of pain.
3. Focus on longevity and employ a calculative approach
Compare, evaluate and summerize haybron, Feldman, and Mill's accounts of hedonism
..
What is the difference between validity and soundness?
What makes a argument valid and invalid?
What makes an argument sound and unsound?
About formal structure
if you ASSUME all the premises to be true, the conclusion must follow in order for an argument to be valid
An Invalid Argument has a structure such that if you ASSUME all the premises to be true, the conclusion wont follow
Soundness is about the truth
What is Modus Tollens?
Modus Tollens – mode that by denying, denies.
This mode is sometimes also called ‘denying the
consequent’ since that’s what you do in premise 2.
P1: If P, then Q
P2: Not Q(denying here, therefore Modus Tollens)
C: Not P (we know because P1, if P then Q. Not Q therefore not P)