Materialism And Dualism Essay

Humans attribute value to objects. Bentham tries to find what humans value fundamentally in a manner similar to the first cause argument. Through this process he deduces that humans fundamentally value pleasure, along with the avoidance of pain. The reason pleasure was the ultimate conclusion is that pleasure cannot be traded away. Bentham is a utilitarian, so he believes in the meaning of the consequences rather than the meaning of the actions. These trades adding up have a net consequence. Therefore, Bentham established the utilitarian maximus, in which humans must act to create the most total pleasure for a net positive consequence. Bentham’s primary thought of maximizing pleasure does have fault. The action of maximizing pleasure would require knowledge about multiple actions, outcomes, and consequences on levels humans simply do not have. It is feasible to say that it is impossible to predict all thought. Bentham realizes …show more content…
The reason this is interesting is because it would seem that because pain and pleasure are primary values, pain and pleasure would also be primary motives for why people make decisions. This could propose that Bentham is not a dedicated utilitarian and is somewhere in the middle, albeit leaning utilitarianism. This is similar to how reductionism suggests to be a compromise between materialism and dualism, albeit leaning towards materialism. It could also suggest that utilitarianism and deontology are not mutually exclusive. It may just be a matter of when the pain and pleasure matter that separate the two. For deontology pain and pleasure may matter only in the motive. In consequentialism, pain and pleasure may matter only in the consequences of the action. Pleasure and pain have plenty of depth behind their denotation. The theories back then have significant implications