Ethics and Social Justice

Bentham argues that humans only commit actions on the bases of utility, which is the desire to enjoy happiness and prevent pain. He is certain that utility alone governs human morality and that the principles of utilitarianism are morally correct for every situation. Bentham claims that the purpose of morality is to increase the happiness of society and every action should aim to benefit the greatest number. He argues that without attaining happiness for the greatest number, society becomes dysfunction. In Bentham’s perfect utilitarian society, individuals would put aside their personal desires which cause pain to society as a whole in order to promote universal happiness. Bentham, strongly suggests that utilitarianism has no uncertainties, period. After objective analysis under Utilitarianism, before committing any action an individual must first examine the happiness which can be extracted from the action and the potential harms that it can cause, if the action yields more pain to the greatest number it is immoral. Bentham concludes that pain can’t yield happiness and that for an action to be morally correct it must

Jeremy Bentham is widely regarded as the father of utilitarianism. He was born in 1748 into a family of lawyers and was himself, training to join the profession. During this process however, he became disillusioned by the state British law was in and set out to reform the system into a perfect one based on the ‘Greatest Happiness Principle,’ ‘the idea that pleasurable consequences are what qualify an action as being morally good’. Bentham observed that we are all governed by pain and pleasure; we all

3. Jeremy Bentham was the founder of utilitarianism as well as an English philosopher. His theory expressed that humans are rational beings with a free will to commit crime. Yet, prior to committing a crime they weigh the costs and benefits to maximize the overall happiness and minimize the overall pain and punishment (Sandel, 34). In order for a crime to occur, the overall pleasure should exceed the pain and punishments. Moreover, those who commit a crime have a low situation control and they are discouraged through punishments that are severe, certain, swift, and appropriate to the

Hedonism is the idea that well-being of people comes about through pleasure. Pure hedonism is the thought that it arises through and only through pleasure and both Bentham and Mill advocate different approaches for which hedonism may be the basis of human well-being. Both Philosophers then go on to construct theories of morality on the basis of this idea such that what should be maximised in a moral dilemma is the cumulative welfare of all individuals as measured by their particular approach for deciphering which course of action will yield the most well-being for all. However, the focus of

John Stuart Mill adjusted the more hedonistic tendencies in Bentham 's philosophy by emphasizing. It is not the quantity of pleasure, but the quality of happiness that is central to utilitarianism. The calculus is unreasonable qualities cannot be quantified. Utilitarianism refers to " the Greatest Happiness Principle" it seeks to promote the capability of achieving happiness for the most amount of people.

Jeremy Bentham was one of the first philosophers to present a fully developed system of utilitarianism. He thought that we, as humans, should evaluate the consequences of our actions, determine whether each action is morally right or wrong, and tally the pleasure and pain that comes as a result of our actions. Is it right for me to donate to charity? Is it right for me to cheat on my government test? These questions we ask ourselves fall under Bentham’s theory known as act-utilitarianism because it focuses on the consequences of every action we perform. Bentham argues that the “greatest happiness of the greatest number of people” (Bentham) is how we should determine right from wrong. He also believed “mankind is under the

The major explanation for human behavior was the hedonism theory, which means people are assumed to automatically attempt to maximize pleasure with the minimum pain. This theory was formed by Jeremy Bentham who said the value of any pleasure or pain would be determined by its intensity, duration, and certainty. Any individual should be able to weigh the pleasure to be gained from an illegal behavior against the punishment or pain decreed by law and subsequently to decide against the act. Bentham believed that punishment

Utilitarianism is one of the most commonly used ethical theories from the time it was formulated by Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mill in the nineteenth century. In his work, Utilitarianism, Bentham “sought to dispel misconceptions that morality has nothing to do with usefulness or utility or that morality is opposed to pleasure” (MacKinnon, 2012, p. 53). To simplify the utilitarian principle, which is one of utility, one can surmise that morality is equated with the greatest amount of utility or good for the greatest number of people (MacKinnon, 2012). Also, with its orientation to the “end or goal of actions” (MacKinnon, 2012, p. 54), Utilitarianism thus, espouses the consequentialist principle, e.g., the evaluation of any human act lies not so much in the nature of the act or the drive behind the act but rather the result of the act (MacKinnon, 2012).

Bentham’s concern was upon utilitarianism which assumes the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. He believes that individuals weigh the probabilities of present and future pleasures against those of present and future pain (Postema, 1998).

In the beginning of “An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation” written by Bentham himself he first starts off by saying, “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure” This is the basis of what the principle of utility is all about. Pain and pleasure are what dictate or motivate us to do everything in life. Bentham believes that a decision can be made depending on how much pain and/or pleasure it will bring to the greatest amount of people. So if a decision brings more pain than pleasure to society as a whole it is deemed as wrong and if a decision brings more pleasure than pain it is deemed as a worthy thing to do. Bentham states, “to prevent mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered: if that party be the community in general, then the happiness of the community: if a particular individual, then the happiness of that individual.” The way

This theory advocates that the actions worth is determined by maximizing utility (pleasure or happiness).it looks at the consequence of an action as to whether the outcome is good to the majority of people affected by it. According to Bentham, utilitarianism is the greatest happiness or greatest felicity principle. There are many types of this theory which include act vs. rule, two level, motive, negative and average vs. total. (Clifford G., John C. 2009) In act utilitarianism, when people have to make choices, they should consider the consequences of each choice and then choose that which will generate much pleasure.

Most people already use some form of utilitarianism when making moral decisions in their everyday life so it is quite easily to adapt and naturally follow the philosophy. Another reason is because it moves away from the idea of the will of God and is based on the what is pleasurable for us. With utilitarianism, it is not just our very own happiness that we have to consider, it is the happiness of all those who will be affected by the decision. The question that is asked in utilitarianism is "What should a person do?" The answer is that questions is, a person should act so as to produce the best consequences possible. When looking at the consequences of such actions, we have to determine whether they are good or bad, right or wrong. But what is good? According to Bentham's view called hedonism, "the only thing that is good in itself is pleasure (or happiness)". Many people object to hedonism because pleasure and pain are things that we feel. They see these things to be intrinsic goods that are not feelings. While others think that our desires and preferences determine how we value things which could cause conflict, if people strongly valued

Bentham promotes ethical hedonism in some of his writings. Ethical hedonism can be stated as: that action is right which promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest number. However, Bentham believes that the world seems in reality to mostly composed of people more closely aligned with psychological egoistic hedonism, which believes that which is right is that which brings the most happiness to the self. Clearly,

According to Bentham, all human beings are governed by two sovereign aspects: Pleasure and pain while each individual accepts the fact that we desire pleasure and unwilling to encounter pain. Then, he came up with his Principle of utility where:

There are so many ethical ideal that I have learned from this subject, got honesty, forgiveness, justice, etc. However, I think that the greatest ethical ideal that I have learned is beneficence. In normal word, beneficence is meaning the action to do benefit and promote the good to other people. While in the language of a principle or rule of beneficence refers to a normative statement of a moral obligation to act for the benefit of other, helping them to further their important and legitimate interests, often by preventing or removing possible harms. I will choose beneficence is because there are many people in this world they need the help from other, although it is only a small thing but when we help them this is also can count as