Posts

Utilitarianism: Application

-
The use of animals for medical research Often, the principle of utility (or the ‘greatest happiness principle) is used to argue that human happiness in the long-term outweighs the suffering of animal experimentation. However, such philosophers as Peter Singer says we should have a rule against causing harm or suffering to any sentient being. However, the purpose of animal experiment should be considered; medical research after all, is more noble than cosmetic safety tests. The sheer numbers benefitting from successful treatments or controlling epidemics over against the amount of pain caused for animals is justification enough. Whether one uses Bentham or Mill is another variant. The above arguments would certainly support Mill; however, Jeremy Bentham argued famously, ‘the question is not, can they reason? Not, can they talk? But can they suffer?’ and indeed was an active campaigner for animal rights. Another point to consider is that any conclusion reached on for this area is difficu...
Post a Comment
Read more

John Stuart Mill's Rule Utilitarianism

-
John Stuart Mill, a student of Jeremy Bentham, was also a prolific philosopher and an advocate of political reform who became a Member of Parliament. Mill fought against colonialism, unfair wages and patriarchy. He compared the status of women in Britain to slaves and advocated full equality. Mill developed Utilitarianism and focused not on the amount of pleasure or pain an action brings but rather on the on the type or quality of pleasure in response to the criticism that Utilitarianism leads people to act like swine. Mill held that if we distinguished between the quantity of pleasure and the quality of pleasure then pleasures of the intellect such as moral development, education and aesthetic appreciation are given their true value. Mill therefore distinguished between moral/intellectual pleasures as higher pleasures and physical pleasures as lower pleasures. Mill argued that this would make a better and fairer society in which to live if we collectively sought the higher pleasures a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Classical Utilitarianism: Bentham's Act Utilitarianism

-
The principle of utility Jeremy Bentham, a philosopher and social reformer was also an expert in law who was dedicated to a more just society addressing issues of excessive and unnecessary pain experienced by those in prison, in poverty, and to those in same-sex relationships. Happiness is, therefore, the supreme ethical value, or ‘the sovereign good’. Bentham noticed that humans seek pleasure or happiness and avoid pain. He called this the ‘principle of utility’. The most useful ethical norm should be to seek pleasure and to avoid pain; in other words, what is right maximises happiness and minimises pain. The most useful actions are those which produce the most happiness for all. This was then developed into both the ‘greatest happiness principle’. We should be concerned about others’ happiness because our happiness is bound up with theirs. This satisfied Bentham’s needs for social justice. The hedonic calculus In order to act in such a way as to increase general happiness and pleasur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Challenges to Religious Experience

-
Challenges to religious experience tend to be centred around:  1. the highly individualistic nature that protects from rational enquiry 2. the inconsistency with everyday life that means that questions about authenticity are raised 3. the challenge that scientific knowledge (how the mind works), more self-awareness (there is no coincidence that cultural perceptions of the divine prevail) and/or linguistic precision (is the term divine an appropriate word to use?) could provide an alternative explanation. Caroline Franks Davis Caroline Franks Davis categorises all challenges into three categories: Description: these challenges involve misremembering, exaggerating, misusing terms or telling lies. Subject: these challenges look at questions around the unreliability, impairment or moral vulnerability of the subject of religious experiences and identify determining factors such as physiological states (e.g. intoxication) and psychological states such as dreams, hypnosis, feelings of lon...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mystical Experience

-
William James William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience, argued that although beyond the empirical realm, a mystical experience has a positive impact on the lives of the recipients. He identified 4 traits of mystical experiences. Ineffable: it cannot be put into ordinary and words and expressed adequately for the benefit of others. James states, ‘… it defies expression, that no adequate report of its contents can be given in words… its quality must be directly experienced; it cannot be imparted or transferred to others.’ Noetic: the experience imparts some form of authoritative spiritual knowledge or insight. James states, ‘They are states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect… and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority for after-time.’ Transient: mystical experiences are short-lived, but their impact may not be. James states, ‘Mystical states cannot be sustained for long. Except in rare instances, half an hour, or at m...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Nature of Religious Experience

-
Visions Visions are perceptions beyond normal experience that typically include dream-like qualities; and/or intellectual content (a message or insight). They can be corporeal (physical) in nature (Saul – ‘bright light’), or spiritual. They can be collective (Angel of Mons) or individual (St. Bernadette). Teresa of Avila (16th century nun) suggested that the highest form of a vision was a sense of G-d’s presence without sensory aspects. Visions are often a part of another type of religious experience. Conversion Conversion usually refers to a positive psychological change in conviction and orientation (James). For example, a conversion from atheism/agnosticism to belief (Alister McGrath) or, from one religion to another (Muhammed Ali). It may be intellectual (C.S. Lewis) or moral, in pursuit of forgiveness of sin (Augustine). Like visions, conversions can be a collective (disciples in the upper room Acts 2) or individual experience (Saul on the road to Damascus). They can be sudden (Sa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Irenaean type Theodicies

-
Irenaeus, like Augustine, did not have a systematic theodicy; unlike Augustine, Irenaeus presents God as responsible for the possibility of the existence of evil. This was deliberate because God wanted human beings to develop the qualities that would make them spiritually perfect. Crucial for Irenaean type theodicies is the first part of Genesis 1:26: ‘Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”’ For Irenaeus, human beings were created with partial maturity, but the potential to develop and grow into the image and likeness of God. Thus, Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden of Eden not because they were perfect and then sinned, but because they were immature. Hick Medieval theologians, and in last century the theologian John Hick, made an analogical distinction between ‘image’ (possessing the potential qualities of God’s spiritual perfection) and ‘likeness’ (actualising those qualities). John Hick disliked a literal reading of Genesis; instead h...
Post a Comment
Read more