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Bentham's Utilitarianism Principles

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Outline the main principles of Bentham’s Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is primarily based on the principle of utility as outlined by Jeremy Bentham. Jeremy Bentham believed that ‘nature placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. The principle of utility holds that actions are right in proportion to the degree of happiness they produce and wrong in proportion to degree of pain they produce. The principle of utility defines ‘good’ as happiness or pleasure and the goal of a moral action is the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Utilitarianism is a teleological theory meaning that final causes exist in nature. So the rightness of an action is determined by its consequences and not by the motive. So if the consequences are good then the motivation, even if it is negative is not even considered.
The principle of utilitarianism is usually expressed as ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number.’ The form developed by Bentham is commonly applied to each individual situation. Bentham’s form is better know as Act Utilitarianism. He believed that pleasure and pain identified what we should and shouldn’t do. He also claimed that the quantity of pleasure/happiness for the greatest number of people, therefore he devised the ‘Hedonic Calculus’ this considered seven principles, each of which could be given a numerical score. The key to utilitarianism is to consider the consequences of a particular action rather than just saying that an action is intrinsically wrong in and of itself. Actions are morally neutral only their consequences have any moral value – they are not intrinsically good or bad.
Bentham argued that these consequences could be calculated by the hedonic calculus. The Hedonic Calculus consisted of seven principles, each of which could be given a numerical score. Bentham believed that pleasure could be

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