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    Happiness is the only ultimately desirable thing — Carmelics
    Home/Consequentialism
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    Happiness is the only ultimately desirable thing

    Consequentialism
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Whatever is desired is evidence of what is desirable
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    • 2.Some things are desired merely as means to happiness, and means are not ultimately desirable in themselves
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    • 3.Other things, such as virtue, are desired for their own sake but only because they have become part of the individual's happiness
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.G.E. Moore's open question argument shows 'good' cannot be analytically reduced to any natural property, including happiness-producing capacity.
      ?

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    • 2.If 'desirable' means 'ought to be desired' rather than 'is desired', Mill's inference from psychological fact to normative conclusion commits a naturalistic fallacy.
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    • 3.Knowledge, friendship, and achievement retain their value even in scenarios where they produce no net increase in subjective happiness, as Nozick's experience machine demonstrates.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Kant's Formula of Humanity establishes that rational persons possess dignity as ends in themselves, a worth incommensurable with and irreducible to happiness.
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    • 2.If persons have unconditional worth independent of happiness, then respecting persons is ultimately desirable for reasons entirely distinct from any contribution to happiness.
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    Topics

    Consequentialism

    Connections

    2 topics

    Truth & Knowledge1 linkedVirtue Ethics1 linked

    Related

    G.E. Moore's open question argument shows 'good' cannot be analytically reduced ...If 'desirable' means 'ought to be desired' rather than 'is desired', Mill's infe...If persons have unconditional worth independent of happiness, then respecting pe...Kant's Formula of Humanity establishes that rational persons possess dignity as ...
    +5 moreShow less
    Knowledge, friendship, and achievement retain their value even in scenarios wher...Other things, such as virtue, are desired for their own sake but only because th...Some things are desired merely as means to happiness, and means are not ultimate...Therefore, all desired things are either means to happiness or constituents of h...Whatever is desired is evidence of what is desirable

    Similar

    Happiness is the one and only thing desirable in itself96%Happiness is the one and only thing desired90%Happiness is desired by and desirable for its own sake for humanity as...78%Some things are desired merely as means to happiness, and means are no...75%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: mill
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    Human beings, of course, desire many things besides happiness—Mill acknowledges this fact as “palpable” (Utilitarianism, X: 234). Insofar as what we desire is taken as evidence of what is desirable, this might seem incompatible with Mill’s second subclaim—that happiness is exhaustive of the desirable. Mill’s strategy for establishing that happiness is the only desirable thing is to show that although there are other things which are desired by human beings, such things are desired only because o
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit