![]() Bentham devised the hedonic calculus to do this. It follows that a method for measuring pleasure is required. The principle of utility holds that the ‘greatest’ pleasure is the goal of ethical action. From this, Bentham devised the principle of utility. This means that it is human nature to find pleasure good and pain bad, which Bentham goes on claim suggests that it is pleasure and pain which determine what we ought to do as well as what we will do. ![]() ‘Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure’. Jeremy Bentham invented the first form of Utilitarianism – Act utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham’s quantitative hedonistic utilitarianism The principle of utility is that an action is good if it maximises pleasure, i.e., if it leads to the greatest pleasure for the greatest number of people. Since pleasure and happiness come in degrees, an action is better the more pleasure it produces and the best action we could do is the one which maximises pleasure. In the case of Utilitarianism, it holds that goodness is pleasure or happiness. An ethical theory based on utility is therefore consequentialist, meaning it holds that what makes an action good is not the type of action that it is but the consequences it leads to. Thinking of the goodness of an action in terms of usefulness refers to the action’s consequences. Moral Philosophy What is meant by ‘utility’ and ‘maximising utility’ ![]()
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