John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1861) 1.      How does Mill…

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1861) 1.      How does Mill…

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

(1861)

1.      How does Mill explain the principle of utility/the greatest happiness principle?

 

 

2.      How does Mill distinguish between higher and lower pleasures? Why is this an important distinction?

 

 

3.      What does he mean by saying: “it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”?

 

 

4.      What does he mean by saying that humans are “social beings”?

Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals, Book I, Chapter II (1797)

1. What is a lie, according to Kant?

1. Why is lying a moral issue for Kant? What does it mean for him to say it is a moral issue?

1. How does Kant explain our humanity?

The Golden Rule Handout and The Fundamentals of Ethics

1. After carefully reading through the examples of the Golden Rule from different religious traditions, explain the moral reasoning involved in the Rule (use specific examples from the Handout to illustrate this). What exactly is the Rule telling us? What logic is it using? Are there multiple ways of understanding it and living according to it? Explain.

Read over pages 159-170 in our textbook (Chapter 11), The Fundamentals of Ethics. The Golden Rule is an imperative. It commands us to live according to one principle. But Kant thought that it fails as the ultimate test of morality. He thought that morality goes much deeper than the Golden Rule. How does Kant respond to the Golden Rule? Why is the categorical imperative deeper, in a sense, than the Golden Rule?