Questions of Ethics

[tonaderspeisung]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

This is why utilitarianism is of only very limited usefulness unless it is tempered by something like a Kantian imperative such as "human beings are ends to themselves". Without that we wind up exactly where you state--whatever will bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number is the correct action. However, if we insert the Kantian imperative then we can say:

Provided that it does not use people as a means to an end and all other things being equal, we should probably consider those actions that bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number the action most likely to be correct.

I would say that this is a more useful formulation of what Bentham and Mills were on about.

Cheers
Aj

with kant thinking wouldn't one have to find that 5 is always a better outcome than one

i personally give life the number value of zero - not as having no value but a number representation for both infinite potential and an absolute value of it's end

in this case 5x0=0 and 1x0=0
so i still can't conclude that actively participating is of greater good than non