Short Essay Question on Utilitarian and Existentialist Ethics
What is the difference between utilitarian and existentialist ethics?
(Break the question down into these parts):
- How do Bentham and Mill (together) and Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Sartre (together) differ on what is
moral?
- What are the arguments that the two groups give to support their views?
- How would Kierkegaard criticize utilitarianism as expressing an "aesthetic" or "ethical" lifestyle, how
would Nietzsche characterize utilitarianism as a slave morality, and how would Sartre characterize
utilitarianism as inauthentic?
- How would Bentham and Mill reply to those three criticisms?
- Which position seems better, and why?