Utilitarianism is a teleological theory as it is interested in the end result of people’s actions.
Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832) was born in London and he devised the Theory of Utilitarianism. Bentham was a hedonist. He believed all human beings pursued pleasure and sought to avoid pain. Bentham said:
“ Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.”
Bentham’s Utilitarianism is also called Hedonic Utilitarianism.
Once Bentham had established that pleasure and pain were important quantities for determine what was moral, he developed the Utility Principle. The rightness or wrongness of an action is determined.
The Principle of utility (or usefulness) was one from Jeremy Bentham 1789. Usefulness refers to the amount of pleasure or happiness caused by the action.
“By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness. I say of every action whatsoever; and therefore not, only of every action of a private individual, but of ever measure of Government”
Bentham (1789)
An action is right if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number where the greatest good is the greatest pleasure or happiness and the least pain or sadness and the greatest number is the majority of people. Good is the maximisation of pleasure and the minimisation of pain. His theory is democratic because the pleasure can’t be for one person alone.
Jeremy Bentham designed the Hedonic Calculus. The calculus weighs up the pain and pleasure generated.
- Its Intensity (or the Intensity of the pleasure as a consequence of the action)
- Its duration (The duration of pleasure (I.e. how long it lasts – the longer the better))
- Its certainty or uncertainty (the certainty of the pleasure: some actions are better because pleasure will definitely follow; whereas with other actions the outcome might not be guaranteed)
- Its Propinquity or remoteness (this means how near the pleasure is to you – and how it affects you directly and others)
- Its fecundity (or productive) or the chance it has of being followed by sensations of the same kind (in other words how likely the action will result in other pleasures or the repeat of the pleasure)
- Its purity or the chance it has of not being followed by sensations of the opposite kind (pain). Some pleasure may involve a certain amount of pain; these are no desirable as those that do not.
- Wit or its extent – that is the number of persons to whom it extends; or in other words who are affected by it. The more people who experience it the pleasure the better.
John Stuart Mill was born in 1806 and died in 1873. He was a child prodigy. He was the greatest British Philosopher of the 19th Century. Mill accepted the Utility Principle of the greatest good for the greatest number. Mill maintained that the pleasure of the mind were higher than that of the body. When confronted with a choice that of the mind is to be preferred.
“ It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”
Mill
Act Utilitarianism maintains that, whenever possible, the principle of Utility must be directly applied for each individual situation. Act Utilitarianism has the benefit of flexibility, being able to take that into account individual situations at a given moment although the actions that it justifies can change. This form of Utilitarianism is associated with Jeremy Bentham.
Rule Utilitarianism focuses on general rules that everyone should follow to bring about the greatest good for that community. Rule Utilitarianism establishes the best overall rule by determine the course of action which, when pursued by the whole community leads to the best result. Rule Utilitarianism is associated with John Stuart Mill.
