Contemporary Political Philosophy by Will Kymlicka

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Recommended: Utilitarianism philosophy

Will Kymlicka’s book, “Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction,” discusses various political philosophies including utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is made up many different aspects including different accounts. The account of utility that I will be discussing is the informed preference satisfaction. Like any part of philosophy, this account of utility has its strengths and weaknesses in practicality and plausibility. I believe that the informed preferences account is a practical attempt to ensure a person’s or society’s well-being is maximized in a well informed and rational way of decision making.
The ‘informed preferences satisfaction’ of utilitarianism is an attempt to accommodate the problems of preferences that are mistaken or adaptive by defining welfare as satisfying one’s rational and informed preferences, opposed to just one’s preferences. In this view, Utilitarianism tries to satisfy the preferences by obtaining the full information about them and correctly judging them. By filtering the preferences, we cast out the ones that are mistaken and irrational. This process seeks to provide preferences that better their life and that have a good reason to be preferred (Kymlicka 16).
The informed preference approach states that those preferences that are adaptive or irrational should be filtered out. When in practice, there is no real way for the government to determine this directly. It would involve obtaining vast amounts of information about every person’s background, capacities, emotional make-up and other things. Of course, no one really wants the government to be collecting such intimate information about him or her (Kymlicka 19).
Although the government cannot be as thorough and direct in filtering preferenc...

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...ttempt at ensuring the well-being of a person or of society as a whole. I believe that the informed preference satisfaction approach has good and rational intentions in ensuring that well thought out and smart life decisions are made. This account of utility is essential to life, not just political philosophy.
The informed preference satisfaction account of utility is discussed and examined thoroughly by Will Kymlicka in his work, ““Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction.” The objections to the account are well merited but the overall purpose and intentions of this account of utility are logical and best for increasing the welfare of society. The informed preference satisfaction account is essential to the world’s well-being

Works Cited

Kymlicka, Will. Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.

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