Bentham’s Theory of Utilitarianism

It is a presentation of an ethical theory that actions are right as long as they produce pleasure or prevent pain. He argues that if utility is defined as the ability to produce happiness, then the rightness of an action is determined by its utility. He also argues that if happiness is viewed as the only thing which is intrinsically good, then the principle of utility is the only right principle of human action.

The principle of utility is a morally right principle of action for every situation. It is also may be described as the greatest happiness principle and it asserts that the only morally right and proper goal of action is to achieve the greatest happiness of all individuals whose interest is affected by the action.

Here Bentham is proclaiming two theses, which have been labeled ‘ethical hedonism’ and ‘psychological hedonism’. Ethical hedonism is the view that pleasure and pain are the criteria the production of which makes acts right or wrong. Psychological hedonism is the theory that pleasure and pain are the ultimate motivational forces determining actions.

If pleasure and pain determine what we shall do, it seems unnecessary to point out what we ought to do. The relationship is not so simple. It is possible for an agent to choose an immediate pleasure that results in a loss of greater pleasure in the future or that results in greater pain in the future. A prudent person will forego an immediate pleasure for greater pleasure later on or to avoid greater pain in the future. Likewise, a prudent person may undergo an immediate pain to avoid greater pains or to achieve greater pleasures in the future. Pleasures and pains may be caused by various kinds of sensations, thoughts, emotions, memories, expectations, and associations. The sensitivity to pleasure or pain may vary among individuals, and that each individual may respond differently to the same pleasure or pain.

Bentham developed a ‘hedonic’ or ‘felicific’ calculus to enable a person rationally to apply his doctrine. In his analysis, a pleasure or pain has a certain intensity at any point in time, and it has a duration through time. These two dimensions constitute the quantity of a particular pleasure or pain and thus constitute its intrinsic value. He did not draw graphs, but if he had done so, his graph of an experience would have had two dimensions. The horizontal dimension would represent the duration of the experience; the vertical dimension would represent the intensity of pleasure and pain.

Actions have pleasurable and painful consequences beyond their immediate pleasurable or painful feeling. These future consequences cannot be known with certainty, but their probability can be estimated. An action or experience may also have some probability of producing pains. So the expected disvalue of pains must be subtracted from the expected value of pleasures to give a total net expected value.

According to Bentham, pleasure is intrinsically good, and pain is intrinsically evil. The motives which individuals may have for their actions are only good or evil if they have good or evil consequences. Motives may not be intrinsically good or evil and their consequences may vary according to each situation and according to pleasure or pain. He tries to justify the oppression of women by men by arguing that women may be more sensitive to smaller pleasures and pains that women may thus have less “firmness of mind”

Bentham, in his analysis of pleasures and pains, does not restrict himself to the pleasures and pains of the senses. He gives an extended list of pleasures: of sense, of wealth, of skill, of a good name, of power, or piety, of benevolence and so on- a list of fourteen categories, and for most of these there are corresponding pains. What Bentham does assume is that all these kinds of pleasures and pains are commensurable. They can each be ascribed some intensity and duration as quantitative measures and summed up to give a total amount of pleasure or pain.

Because Bentham holds a theory of psychological hedonism that pleasure and pain are the motives of all behavior – pleasure and pain are the ‘sanctions’ that modify behavior. Bentham enumerates four: the physical, the political, the moral and the religious. The first of these is simply causal relations in nature by which people learn that certain things cause pleasure and pain. The political sanction consists of pleasures and pains meted out by judges and other state officials. The moral or ‘popular’ sanction consists of pleasures and pains that arise from dealing with unofficial persons in the community. The religious consist of pleasures and pains expected to be experienced in this life or a future one imposed by a superior visible being.

Bentham’s theory of utilitarianism asserts that action and institutions should be judged by their contribution of utility, which is measured by calculating the relative contribution to happiness or pleasure, as opposed to pain. The aim of government should be thus ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’.



Bibliography
Bentham, Jeremy. The Principles and Morals and Legislation. New York: Prometheus,
1988.