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

question 6

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.
-Some utilitarians claim that our deepest moral convictions reflect a utilitarian framework.

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Definitions:

Operant Conditioning

A system of conditioning that impacts the strength of behaviors through positive reinforcements or negative consequences.

Observational Learning

The process by which an individual learns by observing the actions and outcomes of others' behaviors.

Classical Conditioning

A learning process that involves associating an involuntary response and a stimulus.

Insight Learning

Insight learning is the process of learning how to solve a problem or do something new by applying what is already known, involving an 'aha' moment of understanding.