Utilitarianism : : Restorations; Repairs; Renovations / / David Braybrooke.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter UTP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2015
• VerfasserIn: Braybrooke, David,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Toronto Studies in Philosophy
• Physical Description: 1 online resource
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Introduction --; Part One. Restorations and Repairs That Leave Utility and the Calculus in Place --; 1. Does Utilitarianism (Bentham's Master-Idea, Applied as Hedonic Act-Utilitarianism or Otherwise) Undermine Reliable Adherence to Moral Rules? --; 2. Does Utilitarianism (Bentham's Master-Idea, Applied as Hedonic Act-Utilitarianism or Otherwise) Require Perfect Information about Consequences, Leaving Coordination Problems Aside? --; 3. Does Utilitarianism (Bentham's Master-Idea, Applied - If It Is Applied as Hedonic Act- Utilitarianism, Only with Qualifications That May Be Ascribed to Him) Ever Endorse Sacrificing Someone's Life to Make Other People Happy? --; Part Two. A Restoration That, Accommodating Utility Still, Replaces the Calculus with the Census-Notion --; 4. Does Utilitarianism (Bentham's Master-Idea, Applied Not as Hedonic Act-Utilitarianism, but in Association with the Census-Notion Rather Than the Calculus) Ever Require Substantial Gratuitous Sacrifices of Happiness on the Part of Some People to Make Other People Happier? --; Part Three. A Renovation That Makes Provision for Needs Prior to Concern with Utility --; 5. Does Utilitarianism (Bentham's Master-Idea) Fail Because of Problems about the Intelligible Systematic Use of the Concept of Utility? --; Envoi --; Notes --; Acknowledgments --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781442682986; 9783110667691; 9783110490954
• DOI: 10.3138/9781442682986
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: David Braybrooke.

Utilitarianism, belaboured by repeated counterexamples, has fallen out of favour as an ethical theory. In Utilitarianism: Restorations; Repairs; Renovations, noted Canadian philosopher David Braybrooke revisits Jeremy Bentham's master idea that statistical evidence should determine social policies, and ? perhaps surprisingly, given Braybooke's recent championship of natural law ? dispels the discredit that standard versions of utilitarianism have invited.On the issue between rule-utilitarianism (which gives due weight to rules) and act-utilitarianism (which does not), Braybrooke argues that act-utilitarianism cannot be carried out even in principle except under the auspices of rules. He shows that the problem with not knowing all consequences ahead of time vanishes if decisions are subject to continual rounds of revision. Invoking the elementary statistical principle that groups should not be changed in membership just to get more favourable results, he disposes of the accusation that utilitarianism prescribes gratuitous life-sacrifices.Substituting comparative censuses for the hedonistic calculus that figures in standard utilitarianism, Braybrooke excludes gratuitous sacrifices also of happiness short of life-sacrifices. The census notion is proof against the self-contradictory advice that the calculus sometimes supplies. Moreover, it readily accommodates evidence about happiness and needs, both better pursued by dropping the notion of utility. Recast in these ways, utilitarianism takes on a very different guise from the standard versions; it is notwithstanding a guise congenial to Bentham's master idea, and its affinity with the utilitarian tradition and ordinary language shows up in the full intelligibility that it gives to the slogan, "the greatest happiness of the greatest number."