Utilitarianism: Is Happiness the Only Thing that Matters? (Moral Philosophy Episode 1)

An overview of utilitarianism and the arguments for and against this normative ethical theory. Utilitarian theories are consequentialist, i.e. they say that whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, depends on the consequences. The most obvious consequences to consider are happiness or pleasure - and this is what hedonistic utilitarianism says makes actions good. But we consider various problems for hedonistic act utilitarianism, such as how it may lead to the tyranny of the majority, that it ignores intentions, that it ignores the special obligations we have towards family and friends, that it is very difficult to predict consequences, and that it potentially leads to a scenario where we're forcing everyone against their will into the Metaverse (or Nozick's experience machine) to increase their happiness. We also look at other forms of utilitarianism - such as rule utilitarianism and preference utilitarianism - and how these alternative approaches potentially provide responses to these problems. These videos are based around the AQA A-level philosophy syllabus. 00:00 Intro 02:16 The basics of utilitarianism: Consequentialism, hedonism, act utilitarianism, and Bentham's utility calculus 07:52 The difficulties with calculation problem 11:46 The tyranny of the majority problem 14:00 Rule utilitarianism 21:20 The other values besides pleasure problem (Nozick's experience machine) 24:18 Preference utilitarianism 28:09 The 'doctrine of swine' problem 29:50 Mill's qualitative hedonism (higher and lower pleasures) 36:18 The issues to do with partiality problem 43:52 The ignores intentions problem 49:02 Summary: Utilitarianism 51:32 Outro and books References/further reading: My website (AQA notes): https://philosophyalevel.com/aqa-phil... My website (OCR notes): https://philosophyalevel.com/ocr-reli... A more detailed page on my website: https://philosophyalevel.com/utilitar... My book (AQA philosophy): https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Level-... My book (OCR RS): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Level-Religi... Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation by Jeremy Bentham. Full text available here: https://www.utilitarianism.com/jeremy... Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. Full text available here: https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/asse... On Liberty by John Stuart Mill. Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick. Utilitarianism: For and Against by J.J.C Smart and Bernard Williams. Stanford's page (a good resource) on consequentialism: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/co... #philosophy #ethics #utilitarianism #alevelphilosophy