Utilitarianism is the idea that one ought to perform those actions that produce the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers, which is one of the most important views of morality ever developed. In this course we will explore Utilitarianism’s philosophical origins, its influences on politics and literature, and recent attempts to show that contemporary neuroscience and psychology validate it. We will read works of the philosophers David Hume, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill, and excerpts from the novels of Dickens and Dostoevsky. The contemporary writers we will critically examine include the Princeton philosopher Peter Singer, whose controversial Utilitarian views have sparked intense and often vitriolic political and moral debate throughout the world, and the Harvard psychologist Joshua Greene, who has claimed that the fMRI results of people making moral decisions provide powerful reasons for us all to become Utilitarians.
