Hi, I'm a teacher myself (working with ESL students), and your style is exactly the kind of thing I try to emulate. Your pronunciation, intonation, and strategically placed pauses make things so clear, and the way you break everything down into mentally digestible pieces, as well as maintaining links and progressions between ideas, is just perfect and easy to follow. Bravo! Respect! In fact, I'm going to recommend your videos to some of my students for listening practice, since your pacing and enunciation are so good. 👍

So many professors forget that they are also TEACHERS. This man does not. Thank you.

I'm 16 and you're really good at explaining this. I'm lonely and it's a great way to spend my lunches

So to summarize, Utilitarianism answers the following questions in the following manner: 1. What should we do - That with the best outcome (Consequentialism). 2. What is the best outcome - That whose aggregate of good - bad for all individuals in a community/society is greatest (Aggregation). 3. What is good or bad for an individual - Good = pleasure as and end and Bad = Pain as an end (Hedonism). You're one of the greatest teachers I've ever met.

Thank you professor, for giving me the right reasons and philosophical framework to just stop and do the drugs. I feel my life needed this.

you're really good at explaining. I'm a total rookie to philosophy and I find it very easy to learn new ideas from you. So thank you and keep making more :)

You're the coolest professor I've ever come across. A senior student reading law and your videos are pure pleasure

I love the idea of being morally required to do drugs, amazing way of explaining consequentialism, certainly not the example i would've thought of

Finally found enough evidence to explain this "writing backwards" action. The video is just flipped horizontally after being recorded. In the video: you write left-handed you're incredibly fluent at writing backwards you wear a ring on your right ring finger your shirt buttons are on the traditionally women's side Seems much more likely that: the video is mirrored horizontally you write right-handed you wear a wedding ring on the traditional finger of the left hand you're wearing a men's shirt I don't really know what all that gets us, but I thought it was worth the effort required.

Great introduction to utlitarianism! Really enjoyed it.

WHATEVER YOU DO DONT STOP MAKING VIDEOS!!!!

Just marvelous Jeff! The best lecture on the "syllogism" of utilitarian theory.. Thank you so much!

Bentham designed prisons on utilitarian pricnciples. If you ever find yourself in Tasmania I reccommend visiting Port Arthur where you can see an example of one of his prisons. You should also visit the memorial to the 35 peolple who lost their lives in the 1998 massacre. Powerful stuff...

These videos are so helpful! I’m taking a comprehensive ethics exam in a few weeks. Basically, testing out without taking the class. It is all making sense now.

this is the most clear explanation i can found in the internet so far

You are a global asset

By far this is the best explanation that ties hedonism, aggregation, consequentialism, and utilitarianism. Thanks for posting.

He could make the process of changing a tyre on a car sound interesting...brilliant

Good teaching style ,anyone can easily understand it.

I am from India and thank you Sir for your help in understanding the Subject

Ok, this is my 2nd video and my 2nd comment. I'm in love! Lol I'm so excited to watch every video thank you so much

This video is absolutely good. Love it.

Your teaching methods are excellent sir 👏👏

Gotta love learning philosophy with such an enthusiastic young professor who moreover looks just like Jake Gyllenhaal 😍

Thank you sir your lectures helps me

For utilitarianism to be acceptable, it would also rely on three contributing factor's. Situation - Sonario - circumstances.

Coffee is also good as an end, it's an enjoyable drink

Wowwww Thank you so much , I'm worried about my ethics as a subject understanding and it's applications on daily life this video gives me a hope to try once more ❤❤

I find your teaching very informative, approachable, and enjoyable! If possible, could you please make some intro series on logic or rhetoric? Thanks!

When he said "pleasure is just good"...its like I could physically see pleasure

Pleasure is sometimes good for motivation

So well explain Sir You are great

Thank you for the fantastic video

Wow this helped now I can understand

I'm only halfway through, but I'm going to finish it now. I just wanted to share this thought while it's fresh. Maybe I'll eat my words after I finish this video, haha. But anyway, I believe that the dig for deeper meaning doesn't stop at pleasure. Pleasure is good for your health. I believe that nature gave us this awareness of the link between pleasure and good health for a reason. I don't believe that it's happenstance. Good health is good for longevity. Longevity is good for the good of man kind. The longer we are here, the more of an impact and a difference we can make. Pleasure, yielded properly in the right conditions, is in itself a means to a better world when that pleasure is gained through altruistic acts. Thoughts?

you are the best 👌🏻

Thanks so much!

I liked your 'What's going on here?' on 10:10 hahaha

Greatest happiness of the greatest number.

What moral law do we use to decide which moral law to choose?

Jeremy Bentham was one of the founders of University College London. If you are fortunate enought to go to London, the entry to the UCL Building is on Gower Street. Go inside and wander down the south cloister. There, in a box, you will meet Mr Bentham. He is still a (silent) member of the UCL Senate and always votes with the affirmative. 😀

Thank you

I don’t say this lightly. I’ve been through a lot in life and I can say that pain is good for human beings. Pain has taught me more and made me grow and mature more then pleasure ever has.

I see sparkles in the professor's eyes as he argues the positive points of the theory because he knows it's going to be fun to attack those points later.

To quote Spock '" The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one "

Listening to your arguments of Money as only a means is interesting these days. It seems that the accumulation of money is in itself a pleasure generator for some, and that in several cultures a high score in that realm is celebrated and those who get that score are venerated by society. PS Principle is misspelled in the title card of the video.

Love it

You just taught me how to draw a jet ski in the most simplest and easiest way :)

youre amazing

Hi I enjoyed your talk on Peter Singer’s 1972 paper. I agree with Singer and your analysis. One criticism. You mentioned this is “radical” and “nobody thinks this way”. I invite you and Mr. Singer to read the gospels of Jesus Christ, especially the epistles of Paul and James. Read the parable of the good Samaritan. In fact read just about any page of the New Testament, or of (most of) the Old. Virtually all members of the Christian faith that read the Bible would say, “well of course!” to Singer’s paper. I will admit however, that a non-trivial fraction of nominal Christians, may initially object, at least until they have had a prayerful encounter with their pastor, their brothers and sisters in Christ, or with the Holy Spirit. Thanks for your video.

Sure must be nice to be a handsome, eloquent ethics teacher :p

I simultaneously believe that pleasure can be good and bad and that pain can be good and bad. It's completely subjective to every personal experience and situation... 😅 maybe i'm bipolar 😢😂😂

17:10 Luckily, no one needs convincing to do the morally right outcome in that case.

Great presentation.

I beg to differ!!!! Coffee is a good end in itself!

Great video! I love this platform of teaching.

Maybe this is classic utilitarianism, but I thought non-hedonistic forms of utilitarianism existed. Perhaps like act utilitarianism or rule utilitarianism.

Pleasure’s end might be good health or bad health. So there can be an end, and it isn’t necessarily intrinsic.

Does anyone know how he filmed this scene or the technical term for filming like this? It seems like he is writing on a mirror in front of him with a camera concealed to capture it all. However, where is the camera? It must be in front of him, no? The only other explanation is that he is standing behind a glass panel and is adept at writing backwards. While that is not out-of-the-question, that seems a far-fetched explanation. Or am I over-thinking this?

Coffee is pretty good as an end 😁

This is like blues clues for adults

Btw I can't remember what the video is now or I'd say it there but there was one that was introduced with you saying you'd get to the argument over whether or not Nietzsche had anti-Semitic sentiments later on and you never did. 😢 I'm pretty sure he wasn't, since he said anti-Semites were part of what was wrong with contemporary German society and he supposedly turned against Wagner over Wagner's attitude toward Jews and he said Jews as a race were some of the strongest people still living, he just had some strong criticisms against Judaism and religion as a whole (Christianity especially), but I do want to know when there is a dissenting argument. The only thing I've found to make me think less of him is his attitude about war being necessary for evolution - that seems like a toxic sentiment to me.

Happiness is a component of life not the purpose.

10:08 Me at 3am high on sleep deprivation

Is Bentham missing an epistemology which provides evidence that his idea of "good" or "pleasure" as an end is indeed correct? What about each individual end?

I like utilitarianism as a means of ranking actions, but to say you are *required* to do the highest ranking thing on that list is a bit off. Doing the 2nd thing on the list may be less good, but not bad. I'm not sure about plain addition as a means of aggregation. I think I'd rather live in a world where we have a sum of 1+1+1+1 than one where we have a sum of 10-1-1-1. I guess that I'd go for something less strict than consequentialism.

Hedonism Bot approves of this lecture

Coffee is good as an end prof 😂

31:32 yes

20:40 what is utilitarianism

Opening title slide has misspelt principle

The problem with utilitarianism is that ít is always in hindsight. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".

I love that this video starts with a spelling mistake. The "pricniple" of utility. I like this word. Pricniple. Sounds naughty.

Isn't pleasure/happiness good for well-being and isn't well-being good for health and isn't health good for living a longer life?

Pursuance of pleasure can be wrong. Say a person steals something that gives him pleasure but another person suffers loss [pain] Or a person is tortured to betray friends so he tells all to avoid pain but others have increased pain because of it. So hedonism is selfishness and if you define causing others pain wrong then selfishness is wrong. If you exclude the interests of others then selfishness is OK.

I have a question about your video on Peter Singer. Would giving those that are enduring famine the food they need make them dependent upon that very act and set them up for future such expectations? Might it not be the most moral thing to allow them to struggle through the issue and even if it caused a lot of pain and death, let them learn how to take care of themselves? Sort of a tough love example. This is what I think is wrong with Peter Singer's approach. BTW, I like your various video series. Oh, the reason I am asking here instead of in that video is that comments have been disabled for that video.

I'm sorry officer, I was morally required to do all these drugs 🤣

Of course, Utilitarianism, though it treats everyone's happiness of being of equal value, is also vulnerable to problems such as the slave-owner paradox, whereby the theory would deem Utility as maximized if the happiness gained by the masters of slaves, through slave ownership, more than offsets the happiness deprived from the slaves. Deriving a morality based on a version of the much older Golden Rule, say along the lines of respecting everyone else’s need for fulfilment as much as your own, provided they return that respect, avoids such a paradox, by side-stepping aggregationism. At the same time, ultimately from enlightened self interest, such a theory also obligates the continual expansion of a “moral community”, where-in the happiness of all moral agents is again treated as being of equal value, just as in Utilitarianism. Combining the above with considerations arising from the mind-body problem, it then possible to start deducing principles for political organisation, such as the desirability of personal autonomy and consensus-based democracy. Using this theory it then becomes clear that the rational and moral reaction to Peter Singer's 1972 paper (as explored in another one of your very clear and informative videos) is to organise society in such a way as to match those moral obligations with socially obligatory distribution, thus ensuring that all members of our “moral community” do not want for basic needs, through such mechanisms as progressive taxation and sufficiently equal “pre-distribution” of the mechanisms for creating and gaining resources,

"So we're back to money. And again what's money good for?", well for buying coffee...

Bentham's head.

Who’s john mill

This is wildly off topic but how on earth are you writing in such a way that it's legible to both you and the camera?

If "God" not only created people but also created a "user manual" for people to use, all of this utilitarianism stuff as well as other theories of how to behave or live wouldn't even be necessary.

You def have seen Math BFF videos with the hot girl Nancy from MIT math grad. She draws on glass in reverse just like this. But she been doing it for like 8 years ago.

At 5:43: Money can also be invested. Does Utilitarianism take account of smart investments that can continually generate more assets/money?

His video on Peter Singer proves that ethics is hard! It's costly. And neither you nor God wants to pay it.

Any philosophy that tells me to do drugs has to be correct.

pleasure is just good

Professor Toby Maguire over here (i love u, no disrespect intended)

My philosophy is easy always choose the answers with the most love and if you find a better answer with more love adopt that one

It’s funny because there are basically no Bentham Utilitarians in the entire academic universe and yet almost every course uses it as a jumping off point. I wonder if freshmen students hear this and immediately start thinking through why consequentialism could be wrong, why aggregation could be wrong, etc.

Fix spelling of intro title.

Short term or long term? I expect we'll get into it.

Utilitarianism = Collective-Aggated Hedonism? Utilitarian = Collective Epicureanism?😁😊🦉

Hi. Change the word “pricniple” in the title to this lecture.

So, I should force someone to take heroin?

I can’t help but hear “sub-feces”

TItle: "PRCNIPLE...

pricniple lol

hehe it adds up to 69, did you do that on purpose?