Compare And Contrast Jeremy Bentham And Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a common term is the debate world. It can be the basis of many arguments, either for or against a situation. The reason why utilitarianism is so powerful is because it looks at what can be done to benefit the most people. This is popular in both politics and ethics. It is the groundwork for democracy and especially the American people. The only problem with utilitarianism is that it can be very broad, therefore it is not uncommon for people to disagree on what it means exactly. Two utilitarian philosophers J.S Mills and Jeremy Bentham have some thoughts in common but ultimately they have different ideas on what utilitarianism is.

Both of these philosophers believed that utilitarianism involved the greatest amount of good

He reasons that there must be higher and lower pleasures. He says this because if all pleasures were equal then human pleasure would be equal to that of an animal. He makes the point that no rational man would give up his human pleasure in order to partake in the pleasure that an animal feels. Therefore, higher pleasure must be intelligent pleasures since intelligence is what seperates man and beast. He also says that an educated man would never chose to be an uneducated man. No one would ever chose to be something that was ‘lower’ than them. Therefore he says that pleasure need to be looked at qualitative rather than quantitative. This is the main difference between Bentham and Mills; the other difference is that Mills focuses on society more than the individual. So the previous situation with the kid debating on whether or not to help the group, Mills would say to definitely help his group because it benefits the most people. Also Mills focuses quite a bit on the fact that rules that a government makes must be based on the principles of utility. That means that a government must make their rules thinking of everyone 's interests in mind. The reason the government must do that is because it is their duty to assist the individuals in society with achieving happiness because, as stated before the ultimate good is finding happiness. This can also be seen in American culture considering we are granted the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as stated in our Declaration of