His view on what drove human beings and what goodness and badness was all about (he believes we are drive by pleasure opposed to pain – therefore he was a Hedonist), 2. The principle of utility, which is his moral rule and finally 3. The Hedonic calculus (a system that helps measure how good or bad a consequence is). It is relative because it does not say that an action itself is good or bad it is purely based on the situation. Bentham was concerned with human rights and democracy, he believed that happiness shouldn’t only be for one person it should be for lots if of people.
It is based on different virtues that a person should have, so that they can then reach Euadamonia. Euadamonia should be the end goal to everyone's life and it is the ultimate happiness. Virtue Ethics is ‘agent centred’ and it focuses on the qualities of the person making the moral choices rather than the actual moral choice that they are making, which can bring weaknesses to the theory as one can justify mostly anything by using virtue ethics. According to the theory, morality is about becoming the right sort of person, it is not asking “what should I do?”, but it is asking “what sort of person should I be?”, and is not trying to find rights and wrongs, just allow you to become a good person. Virtue ethics is agent-centred ethics rather than act-centred.
He said, in principles of morals and legislation, 'nature has placed mankind underthe 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' The principle of utility Once Bentham had established that pleasure and pain were important qualities for determining what was moral, he developed the utility principle. The rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its 'utility' or usefulness, Usefulness refers to the amound of pleasure or happiness caused by the action - hence it is a teleogical ethical theory which determines a good act by the ends it brings about. The theory is known as the greatest happiness principle, or a theory of usefulness. 'An action is right if it produces th greatest good for the greatest number', where the greatest good is the greatest pleasure or happiness and the least pain or sadness, and the
As Aristotle said: “If, then, there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake, and if we do not choose everything for the sake of something else clearly this must be the good and the chief good” (Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Book 1, 2). He believed that humans have three souls; happiness is found on the rational soul and is particular
Providing arguments for the hedonism and desire satisfactionist against knowledge being counted as a basic good can be accomplished by outlining their respective positions and then show that knowledge need not be a basic good in those systems. In this paper, I will first outline hedonism, then show how knowledge is excluded as a basic good. Then I will outline desire satisfactionism and show how knowledge is excluded as a basic good in that system as well. Hedonism states that a life is good for the person who lives it if that life contains a favorable balance of pleasure over pain.Since this is the case, according to hedonism, knowledge is not a basic good, pleasure is the basic good. The reason why knowledge is not a basic good is because hedonism gives it no value toward the evaluation of lives.
David Hume introduced the concept of utility into ethics – and Francis Hutcheson first coined the phrase that is the objective of utility: “the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people”. Utiliterianism in general was articulated by Jeremy Bentham who was a hedonist. As a hedonist, Bentham regarded pleasure to be good and pain to be bad. Hedonism is the fundamentalist belief of utilitarianism. Bentham developed the hedonic calculus to help us asses and decide on a situation, based on utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes utility, usually defined as maximizing happiness and reducing suffering. Classic utilitarianism's two most influential contributors are Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. John Stuart Mill in his book Utilitarianism, stated, "In the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we read the complete spirit of the ethics of utility. To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality." According to Bentham and Mill, Utilitarianism is hedonistic only when the result of an action has no decidedly negative impact on others.
This indicates that utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism as what is viewed to a morally correct action is based upon the actions outcome. Therefore, utilitarianism commands that when one is faced with a choice of morality, one should consider the moral rightness of an act by means of the consequences that should occur due to the performance of this act and also the happiness which arise due to the execution of the act. The theory of utilitarianism thus places paramount importance on happiness. Utilitarianism subsequently branches off into two forms: Act consequentialism, which claims that “an act is morally right if and only it maximizes the good” and hedonism “that pleasure is the only intrinsic good and that pain is the only intrinsic bad.” In this essay I shall outline and explain the theories of act and rule utilitarianism. I will also discuss and examine these theories in light of the case study about the programme
Introduction Whether reason or emotion is equally necessary in justifying moral decisions is a highly controversial topic. In order to come to a conclusion I am going to analyse and evaluate two important approaches from Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham. I will partially focus on these two important figures, as one presents good will as the only thing that is capable of producing morally justified decisions, if that will conforms to practical reasoning. The other one states that a moral decision is a decision that increases the "Greatest Pleasure for the Greatest Number of People” thereby focusing on the importance of an emotional state of happiness for making morally justified decisions. In order to come to a conclusion of whether Kant's or Bentham's idea of reason and emotion in moral decisions are justified, I will focus on the building blocks on which their theories are built.
Utilitarianism is a teleological approach concentrating on the likely consequences of acts or decisions in order to decide if they are morally right. Utilitarians broadly seek the greatest good for the greatest number when exercising their moral choices. If their intention is to achieve that goal therefore then the outcome of their choice should be as they expect or their goal may be missed. Benthamist utilitarianism in essence argues for a criterion of a pleasure-pain continuum by which the consequences of actions may be assessed: consequences, it holds, can either give rise to pleasure (happiness) or pain (misery). Benthamism is perhaps most famously associated with the idea of ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number’, and applying this notion to the ethical problems we have discussed might suggest that the decision to release information could be supported if a consideration of the social benefits suggested they outweighed any personal disbenefits that might occur.