UTILITARIANISM Johnric Genesis Raganas

Sem. Rolly Coronel

WHAT IS UTILITARIANISM?
Utilitarianism is one of the best
known and most influential moral
theories. Like other forms of
consequentialism
 Its core idea is that whether actions are
morally right or wrong depends on their
effects.
More specifically, the only effects of actions
that are relevant are the good and bad results
that they produce.
UTILITARIANISM: JEREMY
BENTHAM
Jeremy Bentham was a philosopher, economist,
jurist, and legal reformer and the founder of
modern utilitarianism, an ethical theory holding
that actions are morally right if they tend to
promote happiness or pleasure (and morally
wrong if they tend to promote unhappiness or
pain) among all those affected by them.
“the greatest happiness principle” or “the
principle of utility”—a term which he
borrows from Hume. In adverting to this
principle, however, he was not referring to just
the usefulness of things or actions, but to the
extent to which these things or actions
promote the general happiness.
Bentham advocated that if the
consequences of an action are good,
then the act is moral and if the
consequences are bad, the act is
immoral.
happiness being determined by
reference to the presence of pleasure
and the absence of pain.
Bentham says, the principle of utility is
something to which individuals, in acting,
refer either explicitly or implicitly, and this is
something that can be ascertained and
confirmed by simple observation.