Up@dawn 2.0

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Hakuna Matata Sec19 Group 3 Bentham

We started our discussion today by trying to give examples of his felicific calculous equation. We came up with skateboarding. If someone though skate boarding had a pleasure level of 10, but the chances of getting hurt would make the overall pleasure an 8. We tried to understand how Bentham would transfer his philosophy of Utilitarianism into laws of society. He had said he wanted to maximize the happiness or utility of the community. But how does this apply to people that have different ideas of what pleasure is? His goal was to make the felicific calculous equation a general formula for pleasure verse pain that could be used for everyday choices. Though his idea seems a little to broad. We thought that there was a certain kind of happiness that should be maximized, not just any type. His philosophy stated that there was no individual rights, it was meant for the overall happiness of the community instead of yourself.

4 comments:

  1. Our discussion really made me look at the way I make dicisions. It made me consider thinking about my dicisions in a different way before making them.
    Questions on Mill:
    Factual-Did Mill believe in paternalism with the concept of greater hapiness?
    Discussion-What would be an example of his imbetween pleasure?

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  2. Anonymous10:18 AM CDT

    Our discussion on Betham and his ideas on how to measure happiness was interesting to me and also gave me a better understanding utilitarianism.

    Factual: Mill's father used the method of cross-questioning to teach him when he was a child. Which philosophers method was this?
    Discussion: Mill believed that increasing individual freedom produces more overall happiness. Did he think this way because as a child he did not have freedom and was not raised as a child normally is?

    Megan White

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  3. Tyler Tilson12:25 PM CDT

    I can't say that I agree with Bentham's views of happiness, but i am willing to hear out his ideals.
    Factual: Mill believed that every adult should be free to live as he or she pleases as long as no one else is harmed in the process. True or false?

    Discussion: Mill believed we should be allowed to live our lives by doing what makes us happy as long as we don't harm others. So how can we reconcile when one person's happiness brings another person pain?

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  4. Trevor Broaddus1:15 PM CDT

    I thought that Benthams philosophy on happiness and pleasure was very odd for the fact that he quantified something that i dont believe is quantifiable. I believe that happiness as well as pleasure are a bit too subjective and complex to put on such a simple scale and made so universal

    Factual: True or False. Was Mill thought to have been a child experiment with the way his father brought him up?

    Discussion: Mill would let an alcoholic be an alcoholic on the basis that if he is not harming anyone else why should someone stop him. But alcohol as well as many other drugs alter your mind and dont always let the user think in his/her correct state of mind. Knowing this, do you think his philosophy is agreeable?

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