Russ Shafer-Landau Is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

question 4

True/False

Russ Shafer-Landau is professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of several books including The Fundamentals of Ethics, fourth edition (2017) and The Ethical Life, fourth edition (2017). He is also the editor of Oxford Studies in Metaethics. In this reading he reviews some common criticisms of utilitarianism and argues that although some of them are less than decisive, others pose serious problems for the theory. Utilitarianism's most crippling shortcomings are its insistence that there is no intrinsic wrongness (or rightness) and its requirement that we must maximize well-being even if justice is thwarted.
-Utilitarians deny that any type of action is intrinsically right.

---

Definitions:

Ego-Syntonic

Refers to thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or behaviors that one accepts as part of oneself and does not want to be cured of, even if others find them difficult to deal with.

Ego-Dystonic

Referring to thoughts, impulses, and behaviors that are felt to be repugnant, distressing, unacceptable, or inconsistent with one's self-concept.

DSM

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a comprehensive classification of recognized mental disorders used by healthcare professionals.

Psychiatric Diagnosis

The process by which a skilled practitioner identifies and categorizes mental health disorders based on symptom patterns and diagnostic criteria.