Module 2: Hedonistic Calculus Group Assignment

• As a group, select a case study from the archive of columns by the New York Times Magazine’s Ethicist (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. After reviewing the case study, apply the hedonistic calculus to the situation and evaluate its consequences in the following categories, using a 10-point scale where 0= low for pleasure and 10= high for pain.

Intensity: How intense is the pleasure or pain?

Duration: How long will the pleasure or pain last or exist?

Certainty or uncertainty: How sure can we be that happiness will follow from our action?

Propinquity or remoteness: How far or near in space, time?

Fecundity: How big are the chances it will be followed by a similar pleasure or pain?

Purity: How big are the chances that it will not be followed by the opposite sensation (pain after pleasure or pleasure after pain)?

Extent: How many people will be affected by the decision?

Instructions

• Work together with your group in your group forum.
• Provide a URL for or actual copy of the case from The Ethicist that your group used to develop a hedonistic calculus.
• Summarize key decision points in the case and provide your group’s recommendation for the most ethical course of action based on your application of the hedonistic calculus.
• Be sure to test your recommendation against the hedonistic calculus. Ideally your recommendation should come as a result of working the calculus.
• Conclude with a reflection on the process and evaluate the usefulness of the hedonistic calculus as a tool for moral decision making.
• Select one member of your team to submit the final product as a Microsoft Word document to this assignment drop box.