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CEV 2ESO - 07 Utilitarianism - Contenido educativo

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Subido el 21 de julio de 2023 por César Pedro P.

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Utilitarianism

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Since human beings are free, our behavior is not predetermined. 00:00:00
We can freely decide what to do. 00:00:06
Of course, there can be some conditionings that influence our behavior, 00:00:09
but they don't determine what we do. 00:00:14
Do you understand the difference between determination and influence or conditioning? 00:00:17
A determination means that there are strict causes that explain how things must, by necessity, happen. 00:00:23
For example, if you drop a ball, it will fall down because gravity is forcing it to go down. 00:00:33
So, the ball is determined to fall because of the law of gravity. 00:00:44
But human beings are not determined like that. 00:00:50
They are conditioned because factors that affect us can influence our behavior, 00:00:54
but we have always the possibility to choose, to decide, because we are moral beings. 00:01:01
Of course, this ability to decide can create a lot of conflicts with other people, 00:01:08
and that's one of the reasons that makes it necessary to have norms, rules, that organize our coexistence. 00:01:14
Now, a big question is how should we make these rules? 00:01:21
What is the best way to decide how to behave in society, to make the law, or to decide what is right or wrong? 00:01:26
There are many different ways to answer to this complicated question. 00:01:35
Today, we will explore one of them, which is a consequentialist theory. 00:01:39
A consequentialist theory is a theory that puts a great emphasis on the consequences of our actions. 00:01:46
A consequentialist would say that our norms, our rules of behavior, should be done taking into account the consequences of what you do. 00:01:56
There are different consequentialist theories, so we will focus on one very special and important one, called utilitarianism. 00:02:08
Utilitarianism is a philosophical ethical theory that was created in England in the 19th century by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. 00:02:18
This theory says that our norms should be done trying to make as many people happy as possible. 00:02:30
So, not all rules are okay. A rule is ethical, acceptable, adequate, if it creates a lot of happiness, and it is wrong, immoral, if it makes people suffer. 00:02:39
This theory is similar to the one proposed in ancient times by Epicurus. 00:02:54
Maybe you remember what Epicurus said. He was a hedonist. He thought that the basic goal in life was to achieve pleasure. 00:03:03
So, he thought that good actions are those that produce pleasure, and bad actions are those that produce pain. 00:03:12
Utilitarianism is also a hedonistic theory because they think that happiness consists in pleasure, in avoiding suffering, in avoiding pain. 00:03:20
The difference between utilitarianism and Epicureanism is that utilitarianism takes into account the global amount of happiness, not just my happiness, but the total happiness of everybody. 00:03:31
All my actions influence other people. So, when we make the rules, we should think what people are going to do and how their actions are going to affect others. 00:03:48
And we should make a calculation. How this law, how this norm, how this behavior is going to affect other people? 00:03:59
How many people are going to be happy with that? How many people are going to suffer and be unhappy with that? 00:04:07
Let's make a calculation. The right thing to do will be the one that produces the greatest global happiness and the minimum amount of suffering, of pain. 00:04:13
This happiness, this social happiness, is called utility. And that's why the theory is called utilitarianism. 00:04:27
So, we could say that utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical theory that tries to maximize utility, meaning that tries to make as many people happy as possible. 00:04:36
When John Stuart Mill published his ideas, some people criticized utilitarianism because they thought that this would make us live like animals. 00:04:52
Animals also like pleasure. They like to eat, they like to sleep, they like to reproduce. 00:05:04
What is Mill telling us? Is he inviting us to live like pigs? 00:05:11
Of course not. And to explain why this is not the case, John Stuart Mill made a very important difference between pleasures. 00:05:16
For Mill, not all the pleasures are equal. Some are more important than others. 00:05:24
And human beings can enjoy not only food and drink and sleep, they can also enjoy friendship and culture and art and music. 00:05:30
Those pleasures are relevant. And Mill thought that in the calculation of utility, we should not only take into account the quantity of pleasures, but also the quality. 00:05:41
So, it is important to know how important, how relevant, how good the pleasure is. 00:05:54
What do you think about utilitarianism? Do you think that this could be a good way to decide which rules are good for our society? 00:06:00
Thank you. 00:06:11
Idioma/s:
en
Autor/es:
César Prestel
Subido por:
César Pedro P.
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Compartir igual
Visualizaciones:
29
Fecha:
21 de julio de 2023 - 11:23
Visibilidad:
Público
Centro:
IES CERVANTES
Duración:
06′ 11″
Relación de aspecto:
1.78:1
Resolución:
1280x720 píxeles
Tamaño:
356.75 MBytes

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