Epicurus 341-270 bc Teleological ethics hedonism Pleasure is good pain is bad o These are both feelings Strategies for

for happiness o Fulfill desires Satisfy type 1 desires Enjoy type 2 desires in moderation o Eliminate desires Eliminate type 3 desires completely Drugs, alcohol Epicurus ethical egoism o Achieve the greatest good for oneself by seeking the right kinds of pleasures o An action is morally right if it promotes ones long term good Friendship over sex o Greatest means of attaining pleasure and security o Not heartbreak How does Epicurus ethical egoism lead to good for others? o Build friendships for security o Requires trust and mutual help o Be good to friends -> good for SELF Source of unhappiness o Unfulfilled desires o Fear or anxiety causes pain Greatest human fear ones own death Greatest State of Happiness o Ataraxia = Tranquility o Peace of mind and body o Freedom from bodily pain and troubled mind Advice: o Try to avoid heavy responsibilities, ambitions and serious involvements o Avoid the pressure! o Do you really need to be number one? Minimize pain o More important than maximize pleasure o Prioritize pleasures of the mind thinking & reading harmless and more enduring Epicurus would approve of a monks life over hughs The Garden o Epicurus founded a school called the Garden o Epicurus and his students discussed philosophy in a garden setting o Epicurus lived a long, simple life, ending in a painful slow death The principle of utility

Benthams Hedonistic Calculus measures o Quantity = (Intensity, proximity, certainty, duration, purity, fruitfulness, extent) Mills adds one more criteria, THE MOST IMPORTANT -> QUALITY John Stuart Mill 1806-1873 cofounder of utilitarianism what is happiness? o Pleasure and absence of pain What is unhappiness? The Utility Principle o Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong The Swine Objection o A life with no higher end than pleasure is a doctrine worthy of swine, Lower pleasures o Degrading, precisely because a beasts pleasures do not satisfy a human beings conception of happiness Only humans can experience higher pleasures because we have reason Higher pleasures o Human beings have faculties more elevated than the animal appetites Two kinds of pleasures o Higher pleasures = intellectual o Lower pleasures = physical How do we know which pleasure is qualitatively better? o Ask the opinion of qualified judges One who has experienced both pleasures If most competent judges say one is better that is the one that is better Even though attended with a greater amount of discontent Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied And if the fool or the pig are of a diff opinion it is because they only know their own side of the question Mill: All persons are equal. We should be impartial disinterested judges.