A utilitarian would therefore sacrifice their pleasure for the pleasure of the group.īentham created the utilitarian calculus to aid in the calculation of pleasure or pain. Bentham stated that “We should act always so as to produce the greatest good for the greatest number”. Utilitarianism provides that one should pursue pleasure not just for us but for as many sentient beings as possible. However, the principle of utility is different from egoism which endorses pleasure of oneself. The principle of Utility is an action that is commended or condemned according to whether it produces benefit, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness or prevents mischief, pain or unhappiness. Simply put, an action can be characterised as good if it results in pleasure and bad if it results in pain. He proposed that the most important consideration should be the pleasure and pain quality arising from the consequences of our actions. He considered intentions to be irrelevant and believed that good actions would result in good consequences. Bentham was avant-garde in focusing on the consequences of the behaviour instead of on the intent behind the behaviour. This formed the starting point of his inquiry and the foundation for his theory.īentham forwarded the principle of utility which formed part of the family of consequentialist ethical theories, which evaluated the actions of an individual on the basis of its consequences. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do”. In An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation published in 1789, Bentham wrote “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.
While he was in the process of joining the profession, he became dissatisfied with the British law and took it upon him to reform the system. He himself was a lawyer, though he never practiced the profession. Bentham was an English philosopher born in 1748 into a family of lawyers and lived during a time of major social, political and economic change. Jeremy Bentham is considered as the father of Utilitarianism. Ethics seeks to define concepts such as good and evil, virtue and vice and justice and crime to aid our understanding of human morality. Ethics is that branch of philosophy which deals with defining, organising and recommending concepts of right or wrong conduct. Humans have grappled with the question of good and bad since gaining conscience.
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