Samuel Bentham

Introduction: "Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness" (Mill, 1863). Utilitarianism is the ethical theory that happiness is the only thing that truly matters, or has intrinsic value to humanity. Importantly, its supporters believe that everyone's happiness matters equally, regardless of social status, wealth, or other superficial values, and in fact, people should always act to maximize overall happiness, or…

Utilitarianism is a branch of metaethics that focuses on the ideas of consequences, self interest, and unbiasedness. Instead of determining if an action is moral through the immediate effects, Utilitarianism skimps over the short term and instead focuses on the long term effects of actions. Actions are no longer based on intention but, rather the overall effects from those actions determines if the parent event was morally good or bad. Utilitarianism also emphasizes the idea that an individual’s…

Greene seems to consider himself a utilitarian by default, but what is utilitarianism? Utilitarianism is the belief that given the option of a bad outcome and a good outcome, rational people will choose the good outcome. Further they will try to weigh costs and benefits to get the best outcome the perceive as possible. It is a theory that believes that humans ought to act to produce the most good. A utilitarian is more likely to say that the one individual should be sacrificed to save the five.…

or pain it causes the involved parties. Furthermore, he specifies the various qualities that determine the value of the subsequent pleasure or pain, breaking them into seven categories that range from intensity to purity. However, with this model, Bentham makes some assumptions about the model's implementation, which causes problems in every day applications. In particular, the consideration of pleasure and pain of those beyond the individual presents…

On Happiness I: Kant’s view of the Concept (or Idea) of Happiness In this section, through an analysis of Kant’s Groundwork, Critique of Practical Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals, I will demonstrate: (1) The elements of happiness and what happiness is about; (2) The concept of happiness is different for different humans; (3) The principle of happiness is the same for different humans; and (4) Why having the same content and principle of happiness for all humans is not a principle of the…

philosophers have questioned what makes an action right or wrong. Founder of Kantianism, Immanuel Kant asserts that the moral worth of one’s action is dependent on whether or not one is motivated by duty, while founders of Utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill claim that an action’s moral worth relies on the amount of happiness it produces, and for how many people. It is significantly easier to find an action to be morally right according to Kantianism than according to…

In this essay, I am going to write about the utilitarianism theory that defines the morality of actions as the greatest happiness principle that states that moral action is one that maximize happiness for the greatest amount of people and the categorical imperative which also taught us that, the rightness or wrongness of action does not depend on their consequences, but on whether they fulfill their duty. I believe this two theories might be correct in one way or the other, but as we have…

Utilitarianism, introduced by Jeremy Bentham, is to act in such a way that maximizes happiness for everyone. The goal is that it is natural, simple and it considers everyone. However, it does not consider everyone as it says it does. It is not about equality for all and a utilitarian will do whatever the option is, good or bad, to maximize happiness without considering an innocent individual. Utilitarianism considers what group of people holds a greater number of individuals, rather than a…

Mills utilitarian theory was written so that he could go over various misconceptions about the theory, and to address the value of utilitarianism. His theory states that every person’s happiness is equal to another’s, stating no one’s happiness is more important than anyone else’s. He adopts the principle that to achieve the greatest amount of happiness, you must do the greatest good. Mills also introduced the concept of right, and wrong decisions. Based off of this he states that a “wrong…

Derek and Danny were told by their father and Cameron that in order to make their community and the country better, they needed to stand up against African Americans because they were the source of the problems and issues in Venice Beach. They were manipulated into these wrong ideas by propaganda and their own vulnerability. Derek and Danny’s father had been shot while putting out a fire in an African American's home because Derek needed something to push his anger and Cameron noticed his…