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Teacher's Guide - Class Planning Guide
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List I Adam Morton's Sample Course
The
Contract
Part 1
- [1] [2]
[3] [4]
[5] [6]
| Part 2
- [7] [8]
[9] [10]
[11] |
Part 3 -
[12[13]
[14] [15]
Planning Information
| Comments on Sections | Test
Chapter 7
In my notes for Part II I shall give
less detailed advice than I did for Part I. By now you should
know your class and how to use the book with it. So in the "planning
information" notes I give most of what you need to know,
and then most of the following notes on particular sections
are concerned with possible answers to questions posed in activity
sections. In Part II the chapters, except for chapter 11, do
not combine moral and non-moral topics. Chapter 11 pulls threads
together to give a sense of how the moral and non-moral ideas
are linked, as the final sections of chapters in Part I did.
Planning
information:
7.1 essential - read for class
7.2 essential - work through - rehearses 7.1
7.3 essential (but less so than 7.2) - work through - rehearses
7.1
7.4 less essential - read for class - work through - email
7.5 less essential - work through - rehearses 7.4 - email
7.6 essential - read for class
7.7 essential - work through - rehearses 7.6
7.8 essential - read for class
7.9 essential - work through - rehearses 7.8
7.10 less essential - work through - email
7.11 less essential - read
7.12 optional topic - read - email
Box 14 optional topic - email
The absolute core of this chapter is 7.1, 7.2, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8,
7.9
Chapter 7 - Comments on Sections
7.2 The actions recommended by naïve utilitarianism are
(a)-(ii), (b)-(i) or (iii), (c)-(i), (d)-(ii) or (iii), (e)-(iii).
In (b) which of (i) or (iii) is utilitarian depends on the
further consequences of the choice, as a discussion should
bring out. Same for (d). Having got it clear that simple utilitarianism
maximizes the pleasure balance in the whole world, neutrally,
the discussion should center on ways in which this agrees
and disagrees with what we normally consider right.
7.3 You should make it clear that these are problem cases
for naïve utilitarianism. Then you should discuss each
in turn, bringing out the problems. In (A) the problem is
about pleasure and pain and greatest amount. (Does art appreciation
count as pleasure, and how do you compare it to the pain of
hunger?) In (B) the problem is about pleasure and pain. (Does
a masochist get pleasure out of pain?) In (C) the problem
is about bringing about. (The power station almost certainly
will not cause a disaster, so is the small risk that it will
to count as a bad consequence of it?) In (D) there is the
same problem as in (A), but there is an additional problem
about individual responsibility that may be squeezed under
the heading of bringing about. (If an act makes it possible
for people to do themselves harm, is it the act or the silly
victims who have brought about the harm?) At this point you
may move toward a less naïve utilitarianism, which focuses
on happiness rather than pleasure (see section 7.4) and on
probability of effects rather than inevitable consequences
(see section 7.12).
7.4 Though this is less essential it is a topic that students
will find interesting and which should - together with 7.5
- provoke a good discussion. Of the four arguments (1) defends
psychological altruism, (2) defends utilitarianism, (3) defends
psychological hedonism, and (4) defends moral hedonism. The
conclusions of the arguments may not seem exactly the same
as the statements of the four positions: material for a discussion
of variants on them.
7.5 Uno is a moral hedonist; Dua is a utilitarian; Tria is
a psychological hedonist; and Quartius is an epicurean. The
class may want to reflect on which of these is giving the
best general style of advice. The distinction between advice
directed at producing the best life for the person concerned
and advice directed at producing the best outcome for the
world as a whole should emerge. Assumptions that blunt the
contrast between acting morally and acting for one's own good
can then be brought out.
7.9 (i) is an objection to the first premise of (4). (ii)
is an objection to the first step of reasoning of (3). (iii)
is not an objection to the first premise of (4), since that
premise does not say that only moral ideals involve happiness
(of others or oneself). (iv) is an objection to the second
premise of (1). (v) is an objection to the first step of reasoning
of (2). (vi) is an objection to the second step of reasoning
of (3). I suspect that the most promising route to a general
discussion is to ask for reactions to (2). But objections
to all four arguments would set the stage for this.
7.10 The second option is the utilitarian choice in both cases,
at least on a simple understanding of utilitarianism. You
might discuss what other factors could be brought in by a
utilitarian to block this simple consequence. You might also
discuss whether the utilitarian choices might not be the right
ones. And if not, what are they leaving out?
Chapter
7 - Test
Mark each of the following assertions as True
or False:
(1) If an action gives you a lot of pleasure
then utilitarianism says you should do it.
(2) Utilitarianism says you should consider
your own happiness as well as that of
everyone else.
(3) Utilitarianism says that you should give
more attention to people who are close
to you than people you do not know.
(4) Utilitarianism says that increasing happiness
and decreasing suffering are
important than rights and promises.
(5) Hedonism and utilitarianism both say that
people are motivated only by
pleasure.
(6) Bentham thought that happiness and pleasure
were the same.
(7) Mill thought that all pleasures were equally
important.
(8) Mill thought that there were higher and
lower pleasures.
(10) Utilitarianism considers only what will
happen in the future.
(11) Utilitarianism has a complicated formula
for balancing the competing interests
of different people and different values.
(12) Everything that is desired is good.
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