Jeremy Bentham's View On Utilitarianism

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Jeremy Bentham was born in London on February 15, 1748, as “the son and grandson of attorneys. He lived during a time of major social, political, and economic change. The Industrial Revolution, the rise of the middle class, and revolutions in France and America reflected in Bentham’s work. In 1760 at the age of 12, Bentham, a prodigy, entered Queen’s College, Oxford. Upon completion of his undergraduate work, he went on to study law at Lincoln’s Inn. Instead of practicing law, he devoted much of life to writing on matters of legal reform” (Sweet). Bentham, a philosopher, spent most of his days focusing on the philosophy of law and the principle of utilitarianism. Oddly, Bentham did not publish a majority of his work despite spending hours doing it each day. “The publication process did not particularly engage him. Much of what appeared in his lifetime and for decades thereafter involved more or less active intervention of editors” (Ferguson 534). …show more content…

Using the utilitarian approach, one weighs the good and bad consequences when considering an action. If the good outweighs the bad, it is generally a good decision. This moral reasoning exists when a person ponders the consequences of an action by using utilitarian calculus. This is where an ethical math measures the consequences in the measurement of hedons (positives) and dolors (negatives). “For Bentham, pleasure and pain serve not only as explanations for action, but they also define one’s moral. It is, in short, on the basis of pleasures and pains, which can exist only in individuals, that Bentham thought one could construct a calculus of value”

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