Feedback Essay 1
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School
University of Maryland, University College *
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Course
432
Subject
Philosophy
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
3
Uploaded by minassemaie
Your Answer:
In the scenario provided above, in the perspective of Bentham's utilitarianism, the correct thing or decision that Bentham would make is to go in to work and do the surgery. Bentham was more hedonistic
, [This term needs more explanation] consequentalist, believed in psychologial egoism, used Act Utilitarianism, used the hedonic calculus method, measured quantity of pleasure, and most importantly believes the principle of utility, "the greatest happiness of the
greatest number. Thus, due to consequentalism
and judging the morality of an action by the consequence, Bentham will defend that performing the surgery and trying to save the patient's life is a moral act. Also, this may lead to a greater amount of happiness brought to the family that has a family member that has been
saved even if he is breaking the rules a a surgeon on call. Furthermore, Bentham used act utilitarianism
[This term needs more explanation] and in this scenario may state that he has performed the hedonic calclation
[This term needs more explanation] and determined that the consequences do notoutweigh the pleasure of taking a drink as you and your friends will increase their happiness drinking together. Also, Bentham defended egalitarian hedonism
which emphasizes that we should treat our own pleasure with no higher regard than we treat the pleasure of others, pretty much everyones pain or pleasure is equal. Thus, although the surgeon is on call, he should drink and create happiness for himself and not let done his friends by not drinking as this will maximize not only his
happiness
but his friends around him as well by providing better company.
Moreover, Bentham can justify drinking due to the fact that by not attempting the surgery and telling the truth about his drinking,then he is not providing happiness by not saving the life, in fact he may prove that it would be unjust to conflict pain, he should do the surgery to create greater happiness and attempt to save the life. Lastly, the quantity of pleasure
should be measured to make this decision and Bentham will say that in order to produce the greatest happiness on both sides of this scenario he had to drink to create happiness with everyone and now he must do the surgery to again achieve greater happiness instead of conflicting pain. Bentham was also not an absolutist
, thus in this case he may state that he must lie
about his drinking in order to provide a good service like saving the persons life who is in need rather than him telling the truuth and the person experiencing pain and death. Also, due to his belief in the four sanctions
of Physical
(nature will get you), political
(the laaw will get you) , popular
(people will get you), and religous
sanction (God will get you), bentham can support his decision to do the surgery as moral. Overall, due to the fact that Bentham believed in science and mathmatics and that you can calculate whether something will be moral, thus after calculating
using the hedonic calc, he can defend that performing the surgery again emphasizing - would promote and create the maximum amount of happinest of the
greatest amount whilst outweighing the consequences. FOr instance, he may state that he will save the persons life but get fired, however, the patients life is more important and he will be happy to save his life and the patient and the rest of his family w
Instructor Response:
Bold and underlined
words are good and are things I am counting as a term. Bold and italicized
words are good ideas and are potentially helping your grade. Bold and crossed
out words are wrong and are working against your essay.
This is your first essay and there is a bit of a learning curve. That is why I am generous on this first essay grade, and I will drop your two lowest grades. With that said, you had a good start. I can tell you were trying to use terms. There were 9 terms that I counted. And you did a decent job of explaining and applying them. A few need more explanation. Typically I would give this essay credit for 6 of these terms. I want to see all four of the sanctions applied and that would count as another term. Typically this essay would score an 80% from me. And then I ask myself did this demonstrate an above average understanding of Bentham’s ethical system? Yes, above average with some small issues. What would it need to improve? Really, explain a few terms better, and then just talk about a few other terms like the psychological egoism, and the Principle of Utility. That would get this up to an 90%. And if you had mentioned all 7 steps of the calculus (you don’t have to dive deep into them) that would have gotten you another term and up to 95%. Does that help? In this instance I am giving you an 85% as a gracious first essay score. Remember, I want to see you use the term, explain it and apply it in a way that demonstrates that you understand it. However, a few tweaks and this could easily be much higher in the future. So, there is great potential here. Here is one example I am giving everyone to help you improve a bit. Let’s take the terms Act Utilitarianism, the Hedonic Calculus, and the Quantity of Pleasure. They all flow together. Here
is something you could have said,
“Bentham follows Act Utilitarianism
which says to calculate the predicted consequences in terms of pleasure or pain for the action you are considering. In this case I need to calculate the pleasure and pain of doing the surgery or not. To do this Bentham uses the Hedonic Calculus
which is his attempt to create a scientifically measurable ethical system. When you factor in the seven steps of the Calculus you find that it generates 24 units of pleasure to do the surgery and 15 units of pain to not do the surgery. According to the Quantity of Pleasure
I need to pick the action that will generate the most units of pleasure which in this case is to do the surgery.”
Notice that all three terms are explained, applied and flow from one to the next. Also, noticed that I explained the Hedonic Calculus without getting caught up in all seven steps. And I just made up numbers. It doesn’t matter. Everyone realized that the Calculus is ridiculous. But that
demonstrates that you get what it is supposed to do, namely, generate predicted units of pleasure and pain. Then the Quantity of Pleasure flows out of that. Notice, I only used 3 terms here. I am looking for you to use far more. Please look at the syllabus for a grading rubric if you haven’t already done so.
While there are a number of terms that might count for Bentham here are some that I typically look for:
The Principle of Utility
(which says) the greatest happiness of the greatest number
Consequentialist
Maximize Utility/happiness
Egalitarian Hedonism
Hedonistic
Psychological Egoism
Act Utilitarianism
Hedonic Calculus
Quantity of Pleasure
The Four Sanctions
Physical
Political
Popular
Religious
With the Four Sanctions it counts as one term to explain it and apply it. It counts as two terms if you explain and apply all four of the sanctions (even if you tell me why one might not factor in).
I hope that helps you prepare for future essays.
Prof. Nachtigal
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