语言学与哲学（美国麻省理工） (18).pdf

: Problems of Philosophy
Prof. Sally Haslanger
November 26, 2001
Utilitarianism
Last time we considered three questions one might ask an ethical theory to answer:
i) Which acts are right and which are wrong? Which acts ought we to perform (understanding the "ought" as a moral
"ought")?
ii) What makes a particular action right or wrong? What is it about the action that determines its moral status?
iii) How do we know what is right and wrong?
There are a variety of strategies for answering (iii). One might hold ., that moral truths are revealed by God and
encoded in holy texts; or that humans have a special moral faculty (something like conscience) that gives us access to
moral truth; or that we can deduce moral principles from the structure of rationality; or even (with cultural relativists) that
e to know what is right and wrong simply by learning the moral code of our culture. Mill (and other Utilitarians)
use another strategy. They begin by asking what, if anything, is good in and of itself, something that is not merely
instrumentally good--as a means to some other good--but is good per se. We answer this question by looking at the
structure of human desire, what it is that (well-informed) people ultimately aim for in action. The idea is that once we
understand what this good is, the right act is the one that promotes the maximum amoun