Utilitarianism
In Our Time11 Jun 2015

Utilitarianism

A moral theory that emphasises ends over means, Utilitarianism holds that a good act is one that increases pleasure in the world and decreases pain. The tradition flourished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and has antecedents in ancient philosophy. According to Bentham, happiness is the means for assessing the utility of an act, declaring "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." Mill and others went on to refine and challenge Bentham's views and to defend them from critics such as Thomas Carlyle, who termed Utilitarianism a "doctrine worthy only of swine."

With

Melissa Lane The Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University

Janet Radcliffe Richards Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Oxford

and

Brad Hooker A Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading

Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Episoder(1086)

Medical Ethics

Medical Ethics

Melvyn Bragg examines the technological advances and ethics of modern medicine. On an average working day about three quarters of a million of us go to the doctor’s. About a hundred thousand are visit...

16 Des 199927min

Childhood

Childhood

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss childhood. The 20th Century was proclaimed the Century of the Child. It has been much else but in the western world the position, the possibilities, the meaning and the...

9 Des 199928min

Tragedy

Tragedy

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the ancient genre of tragedy and examines whether we have a psychological need for it, either as catharsis or Schadenfreude. You could be forgiven for th...

2 Des 199928min

Consciousness

Consciousness

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the problems of consciousness, one of the greatest mysteries facing science and philosophy today. The frustrations, the stubborn facts and the curiosities of today’s th...

25 Nov 199927min

Progress

Progress

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss progress. As man has grown in years and knowledge, has he also progressed in terms of happiness and a true understanding of the human condition? It was the Enlightenmen...

18 Nov 199928min

The Novel

The Novel

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the development and the future of the novel. D.H. Lawrence was proud of his job, he said: “I am a man, and alive…for this reason I am a novelist. And being a novelist, ...

11 Nov 199928min

Education

Education

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history and the modern purpose of education. Nobody - would argue with the fact that education is of central importance to the people we are. And there seems to be ...

4 Nov 199928min

Atrocity in the 20th Century

Atrocity in the 20th Century

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the widespread and chilling atrocities of the 20th century. Just over a hundred years ago, in the ‘Genealogy of Morals’, Nietzsche wrote “there can be no doubt that mor...

23 Okt 199928min

Populært innen Historie

med-egne-oyne
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
historier-som-endret-norge
henrettelsespodden
rss-benadet
historier-som-endret-verden
rss-katastrofe
rss-nadelose-nordmenn-gestapo
sektledere
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
aftenposten-historie
rss-frontkjemperne
rss-bisarr-historie
rss-gamle-greier
rss-politisk-preik
rss-historiske-romanser-svik-drap-og-kjarlighet
historiepodden-ww2
historiepodden
rss-historiepodden-ww2
vare-historier