Open Forum: Aiming for the Best Consequences: A Case for Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is an approach to ethics that the best actions are the ones that promote good things as pleasure, happiness or well-being while reducing pain and suffering. Utilitarianism always aims to attain the best consequences for the greatest number.

Peter Singer will be speaking on whether utilitarianism can be proved, including the role of intuitions, and  will be responding to some common objections.

Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek will then be speaking on what the utilitarian goal should be, considering various possibilities before arguing that it should be pleasure.

The aim of this forum is ultimately to create a dialogue between the speakers and the audience. And by the end of the event, participants will appreciate that utiliarianism has a valuable role in modern moral decisions and irrespective of whether one holds other ethical beliefs and reasoning.

Peter Singer becomes well-known internationally after the publication Animal Liberation. He is the Ira W.Decamp Professor of Bioethics in the University  Center for Human Values at Princeton University and Laurate Professor at the University of Melbourne. In 2005, Time Magazine named him one of the most influential people in the world and in 2012 he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, the nation's highest honour. He has published many other books, including Practical Ethics, Ethics in the Real World, and the Life You Can Save.

Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek is a Polish utilitarian philosopher and a Professor at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Lodz. She has published articles  in Polish and English on Utilitarianism, bioethics and philosophy for children and works on well-being, happiness and pleasure. With Peter Singer, she is the co-author of The Point of View of the Universe: Sedgwick and Contemporary Ethics.