The Concept of Utilitarianism : Jeremy Bentham

The Concept of Utilitarianism

It was an English philosopher Jeremy Bentham that submits the idea of utilitarianism. His ambition in life is to create a “Pannomion” – a complete code of law of utilitarianism. The philosophy of utilitarianism argues that each human being, all throughout his existence, is subjected to the governance of two sovereign masters, the pain and pleasure. Because of this, he derived the rule of utility, which states that the good is whatever brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. Apparently, he notices the two conflicting ideas of the rule so he simplifies it as “the greatest happiness principle”.

The Utilitarianism is a modern form of Hedonistic Ethical Theory, which is a concept of the Hedonism, a group of ethical system that believes that happiness is the final and highest aim of conduct. Being an ethical hedonist, Bentham claims that the only good is pleasure and pleasure will therefore bring happiness. He then formulated an algorithm called Felicific Calculus that tends to calculate the degree or amount of pleasure produced by a specific action which also determines the moral status of any considered act. In this algorithm, Bentham points out the key determinants of pleasure and pain which he called the “divisions” or “elements”. The said elements were intensity, duration, certainty and uncertainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity and extent. All these elements are factors which affects the calculation of pleasure and pain.

Bentham’s ethical theory of Utilitarianism was adapted by John Stuart Mill, also an English Philosopher whose father is foremost proponent of Bentham. Mill believes that the intellectual, cultural and spiritual pleasures are of greater value than the mere physical pleasure because the former would be valued more highly by competent judges than the latter. According to Mill, a competent judge, is anyone who has experienced both the lower pleasures and the higher. And just like Bentham's theory, Mill's utilitarianism also deals with pleasure or happiness.

The idea of the Bentham and Mill has influenced more philosophers to also come with such developments regarding the utilitarianism. And with that, the theory of consequentialism was later introduced. The consequentialism on the other hand, refers to the ethical theories that locate the source of moral value in desirable states of affairs that result as a direct consequence of an action. These results to the existence of many different accounts of the good and therefore many different types of consequentialism and utilitarianism have also been introduced.

Both Bentham and Mill is hedonist. They tend to define happiness as a balance of pain and pleasure. They also believe that these feelings alone are intrinsic value and disvalue. Utilitarianism relies upon on the some theories of intrinsic values. And Utilitarian assumes that it is possible to compare the intrinsic values produced by two alternative actions and to estimate which would have better consequences.


Introduction

Life is such a journey for every human. Every day, they are faced with different obstacles that will test their capacity on how well they can survive this cruel world. This place may not be the ideal one for most of them but despite of that truth, they are still eager to search for any possibilities that will make them contented and satisfied whether it will be against the others will.

The fight between the good and the bad is endless. In this life, we are always bound to make some choices regarding this two opposing ideas, the good and the bad, the right and the wrong the wicked and the righteous. We are fortunate because we have the capacity to choose between the two; however the criteria that we use on how we choose depend on how these things affect our happiness. In short, we chose the one that will make us happy and not the supposedly that is better for us. It may seem that it’s hard to deal with happiness nowadays. In fact, there are a lot of factors that affects how humans define the idea of happiness. As long as it gives them the right satisfaction and pleasure that they needed, that’s what happiness is for them.

Aside from the satisfactions that they receive from each pleasant experience, happiness for them is more of a consolation that they need to have in exchange with all the tragic experience that they have encountered. Of course, if there is pleasure, pain is just on the other side. The peoples search for happiness is more like finding a cure for a disease. In this case, pain is the disease and happiness is the medication for it. In order to overcome pain, they tend to seek for some relieves that sometimes adds more burdens to them.

Although it is said that happiness is immeasurable, its degree will merely depend on a person’s perception about satisfaction.