Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? Episode 02: “PUTTING A PRICE TAG ON LIFE”
Posted by admin in Finance Sunday, 26 December 2010 12:29 25 Comments
PART ONE: PUTTING A PRICE TAG ON LIFE Today, companies and governments often use Jeremy Benthams utilitarian logic under the name of cost-benefit analysis. Sandel presents some contemporary cases in which cost-benefit analysis was used to put a dollar value on human life. The cases give rise to several objections to the utilitarian logic of seeking the greatest good for the greatest number. Should we always give more weight to the happiness of a majority, even if the majority is cruel or ignoble? Is it possible to sum up and compare all values using a common measure like money? PART TWO: HOW TO MEASURE PLEASURE Sandel introduces JS Mill, a utilitarian philosopher who attempts to defend utilitarianism against the objections raised by critics of the doctrine. Mill argues that seeking the greatest good for the greatest number is compatible with protecting individual rights, and that utilitarianism can make room for a distinction between higher and lower pleasures. Mills idea is that the higher pleasure is always the pleasure preferred by a well-informed majority. Sandel tests this theory by playing video clips from three very different forms of entertainment: Shakespeares Hamlet, the reality show Fear Factor, and The Simpsons. Students debate which experience provides the higher pleasure, and whether Mills defense of utilitarianism is successful.
@LeoLeoni13 aha, yeah your right…
i prefer the simpsons over shakespere because the simpsons matters less, id rather be entertained in the way the simpsons entertains me because it would take my mind off things and allow me to relax and just “be”. Id rather be ignorant and closer to the nirvarna state of mind.
the main problem is that there is no such thing as right or wrong, its all opinion and opinions change over time and are different to different people
Taking pleasure in someones suffering is wrong, you cant take into account pleasure generated in acts as gruesome as throwing a man to a lion. Id eat a 6 inch worm for £50 (lol) but id barter for as much as i could 1st. Its wrong to torture people for information because you wouldnt want it to happen to you, torture 1 acceptably and all can be tortured acceptably.
what simpson episode was it that Sandel played during lecture?
@spartan0187 this is a lecture, from there you have a section once a week in which you meet with about 10 people to discuss readings and theories
Shakespeare caused Tolstoy pain..
@TheCommentatorrable well, say the question is reversed, how much would u pay to save your child?
the black girl who said Shakespeare results in deeper pleasure because we are told so by society has defeated the purpose of her argument. Mill owns Kant.
Ahh I’m learning this in my grade 12 philosophy class. Very interesting stuff.
@vinimedina91 Is this a classroom, or just a lecture that you can voluntarily choose to come to? If that’s a classroom, that’s crazy.
@TheDevineWolf hitler is not a real utilitarian. one can not disprove an augment by yelling “NAZI”
why wont any of the videos open?is it just me or is this a general problem?
i wished they still made Pintos
A quote from Spock: “Were I to invoke logic, however, logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
@vinimedina91 what attitude do you speak of? all I see is AVERAGE intelligence students with undue confidence in their AVERAGE remarks.
get a grip.
I object to mills’ on ‘mathematical’ grounds. If & means ‘and’, >> is the “higher” operator, and > is the “majority considers it higher but significant minority does not. ” operator, we can have C>B>A & C>>A. Which clearly contradicts both (C&B>>A)&(C>>B&A). You can’t divide things into discrete categories when they belong somewhat on a continuous scale. Another parable would be the division of lifeforms in species. If A breeds with B and B with C, yet C not with A, how do we categorize A,B,C?
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@ljdavies1987
I think if you look at the long term, those people will feel bad for raping that woman, therefore negating the pleasure they had raping her. If those people don’t feel bad, then they lack conscience and are a threat to society and as such should be locked away for the greater good.
In the same sense the high price of eating a worm might imply that for many people harming their own dignity by publicly eating a worm is worse than losing a toe or a tooth (minor physical limitations). But as the numbers in that survey are averages, variations might be widespread. So there are individuals that will not value their own dignity or freedom as much as others. We can see people selling their dignity really cheap in shows like fear factor.
I believe the reason people put the highest price to living the rest of their life on a farm in Kansas is not that farm life is so horrible but because they immensely value their freedom to chose where they live and what to make of their life. This however is hidden behind and tied to the actual “article for sale”. So I guess if they had been asked If they would rather cut off a toe or be forever massively limited in their choice of profession and where to live, the result would be the same.
@ljdavies1987 if you beleive utilitarism is realy an answer even an philosofical answer to that question you can try to answer it you can even try to discus if genocide was an utilitarism answer for nazi propaganda and for German people , the fact is that utilitarism is an very dangerous toy .
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thank you for smoking?
I have a masters degree in Politics, and we had a really long debate on utilitarianism with the question “Does Utlitarianism justify gang rape, if there are enough people in the gang for their pleasure to outweigh the pain of the woman?” I simply throw this out there for people to think about and discuss.