Explain the general principles of Utilitarianism, including reference to both Act and Rule.

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Camille Brien

Explain the general principles of Utilitarianism, including reference to both Act and Rule.                                                                                                   (30 marks)

         There are two types of Utilitarianism, Act and Rule. Jeremy Betham played the key role in the development of the concept of Act Utilitarianism whereas John Stuart Mill took Betham’s act utilitarianism and developed it further into his own version, becoming known as Rule Utilitarianism.

          The phrase ‘The greatest good of the greatest number’ was a phrase he coined from Priestley’s essay on government, and this provided the foundations of Bentham’s act Utilitarianism. Bentham stated that ‘nature had placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.’ Believing that everything we do is motivated as to whether we gain plain or pleasure from that action, that it is our human nature to do so.  From this phrase came the concept of hedonism which was all about trying to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. He disliked the religious and traditional moralities of his day, created a secular, non-transcendental, independent ethical system which did not reply on religious authority. It was a teleological system, as Bentham believed that the value of an action is determined by the value of its consequences. Bentham created the ‘principle of utility’ which stated that the most useful act is the one which produces the greatest happiness stating, ‘an action may be said to be conformable to the principle of utility… when it has the tendency to augment happiness’ from Bentham’s introduction to Principles, Morals and Legislation.

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        Bentham quantitatively measured pain, and in order to do this created the Hedonic Calculus. The Hedonic Calculus is the term given to the method of calculation total quantity of pleasure and pain a certain action would create. In this calculation seven different factors are taken into consideration. The first factors concern the immediate effect of the action; Intensity of pain/pleasure, Duration of the pain/pleasure, the certainty of the desired effect of the action and the nearness/remoteness (how much the person will be affected by the action). The next factors concern the consequences of the action; fecundity ...

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