Individual Rights

These “Justice” lectures are covering my favorite topic - Libertarianism.

If I need to define my political views in one word, it would be Libertarianism. HOWEVER, when I am talking with my Libertarian acquaintances, I can call myself a “Pro-states man.” ;-)

For me, it is very clear why Libertarianism is not so popular:

• most of the people who promote it are fanatics
• they try to see the world in “black and white” and close their eyes to fundamental problems.

Fundamental problems include:

I continue overviewing lectures about Justice and sharing my mind-maps. This time I’m sharing my mind-map from the lectures on Utilitarianism.

Download full mind map (PDF)

Summary of the lectures:

Lecture 3: Utilitarianism - Jeremy Bentham

In this lecture, the speaker discusses Jeremy Bentham’s version of utilitarianism, which aims to maximize general welfare by balancing pleasure and pain, and the application of utilitarianism in cost-benefit analysis used by companies and governments. The lecture explores the example of a Philip Morris study on smoking in the Czech Republic, which found a net public finance gain of $147 million. The lecturer also discusses the Ford Pinto case, where Ford did a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether it was worth putting a special shield to protect the fuel tank and prevent it from exploding. The lecture also focuses on the contentious issue of putting a dollar value on human life in cost-benefit analysis, and the objections to utilitarianism, particularly the effect on minority groups and the trade-offs of individual rights for the greater good. The example of the shipwreck boy who was eaten is used to illustrate these objections.