How could we have speeding laws, for example, if it would sometimes be ethical to break the speed limit? He believed it was too difficult for a society to run if it had to consider the specific costs/benefits of every single action. John Stuart Mill, a student of Bentham’s, disagreed. Whenever we are faced with a decision, an act consequentialist will expect us to ask that question.

This basic form of consequentialism holds an action as ethical if and only if it produces more beneficial/pleasure-causing outcomes than negative/pain-causing ones.

utilitarianism could be seen as a radically egalitarian philosophy.īentham’s views are most closely aligned with act utilitarianism. Because it counted every person’s pleasure or pain as the same, regardless of age, wealth, race, etc. He even developed a calculator to work out which actions were better or worse – the ‘felicific calculus’. If happiness was the experience of pleasure without pain, the most ethical actions were ones that caused the most possible happiness and the least possible pain. The most famous version of this theory is utilitarianism.Īlthough there are references to this idea in the works of ancient philosopher Epicurus, it’s closely associated with English philosopher Jeremy Bentham.īentham’s theory of utilitarianism focussed on which actions were most likely to make people happy. Consequentialism is a theory that says whether something is good or bad depends on its outcomes.Īn action that brings about more benefit than harm is good, while an action that causes more harm than benefit is not.

Define hedonism