Question

6. What does it mean to say that something has instrumental value, and what does it mean for something to have intrinsic value? Give an example of something that you think has instrumental moral value, and an example of something that has intrinsic value. Explain your choice.

7. Who was Jeremy Bentham and what is his view on pleasure? What was the Benthamite theory for the happy life nick-named and why? Give one reason for why philosophers found that Bentham’s view on pleasure misses an important aspect.

8. Name one difference between Bentham’s and Mill’s utilitarian theories. What is a fault that Mill found with Bentham’s? Explain by describing Mill’s theory. Do you agree with Bentham, or with Mill? Explain your choice.

Answer 1

6) Instrumental values help us to achieve our end goals. For example money has an instrumental value as it provides security and allows us to earn a good life for ourself. It is a means to an end for sure. Without these properties money is nothing but a piece of paper with a print on it. Intrinsic values lie in the heart of the ethics and morals. It is a value that something has in itself and for its own sake. Happiness is an intrinsic value as it is self sufficient in itself. A happy person achieves everything in life.

7)Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher and political radical who is famous for his moral philosophy around principles of utilitarianism that evaluates actions based on the  consequences. He considered happiness as a matter of experiencing pleasure and lack of pain. He considered pleasure and pain can govern  not just people's actions but also how they ought to act.Jeremy Bentham's famous formulation of utilitarianism was termed as the greatest-happiness principle. It states that one must always act so as to produce the greatest aggregate happiness among all sentient beings, within reason. As per philosophers, his theory misses the quality of pleasure into account and considers only quantity.

8)Mill is referred as an inconsistent utilitarian because he thought while  comparing the value of two pleasures, we should not forget to take their quality into account. Bentham believed that we should take “only quantity”. Mill defined utilitarianism as a theory based on the principle that actions are right in proportion if they promote happiness and  wrong if they produce the reverse of happiness. Mill defines happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain. I believe in Mill's theory as it is more realistic and driven by actual facts.