Abstract

My purpose in this paper is to summarize some aspects of utilitarianism and to provide a general overview of Hare's preference utilitarianism, followed by a critique of Hare's preference theory.

Highlights

  • Richard Hare is one of most foremost contemporary defenders of utilitarianism today

  • My purpose in this paper is to summarize some aspects of utilitarianism and to provide a general overview of Hare’s preference utilitarianism, followed by a critique of Hare’s preference theory

  • Hare’s moral theory is a very powerful one based on a synthesis of intuitionism and utilitarianism and is at present the most defensible form of utilitarianism

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Summary

Preference utilitarianism

Hare maintains that there are two levels of moral thinking – the intuitive and the critical levels[3]. People apply moral intuitions or general prima facie principles (which they take for granted as given) to individual moral situations. The process of a critical moral thinking involves the consideration of people’s preferences and this is what makes Hare’s moral theory utilitarian and consequentialistic[6]. The action which satisfies the strongest preferences of people is the right action This is slightly different from the traditional utilitarian principle that “the rightness or wrongness of actions and/or moral rules should be evaluated solely in terms of theirs consequences for all concerned” (that is, in terms of their ability “to maximize the good, happiness or benefit to people”). Let us examines briefly the characteristics of the main traditional forms of utilitarianism and act and rule utilitarianism – and the objections advanced against them

Hedonistic utilitarianism
Ideal utilitarianism
Act utilitarianism
Rule utilitarianism
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