Week 15: Kant's Groundwork and Mill's Utilitarianism

 

Discussion Activity

Split into two teams. Hold a debate on the following motion:

This house believes that "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness".

The proposing team should read Mill's Utilitarianism (at least Chapters 2 and 4) and at least one introduction to utilitarianism in order to put forward the motion and marshal arguments in support of it.

The opposing team should read Kant's Groundwork (at least Section 1) and at least one introduction to Kant in order to find arguments against the motion and to find an alternative foundation for ethics.