Jeremy Bentham: an Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

question 22

Essay

Jeremy Bentham: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
Bentham endorses both a descriptive and a normative version of hedonism, the view that the human good is pleasure and absence of pain. According to the descriptive version, all human actions are performed for the sake of obtaining pleasure and avoiding pain. According to the normative version, what we ought to do is determined solely by considerations of pleasure and pain. As a development of this normative thesis, Bentham goes on to endorse the principle of utility, the claim that an action is right when it tends to add to the sum total of the pleasures of those affected, where this "sum" is conceived of as the total amount of pleasure minus the total amount of pain.
Bentham claims that the words right and wrong can have no other meaning than that laid out by the principle of utility, and that alternative moral theories usually end up invoking utilitarian considerations. Nonetheless, Bentham admits that the principle of utility cannot be directly proved, because it is the foundational principle from which ethical arguments begin. Bentham critiques the rival "principle of sympathy and antipathy" according to which an action is right if and only if one approves of it. This principle, Bentham objects, is really no principle at all, for a principle is supposed to tell us when our attitudes are justified, but the principle of sympathy and antipathy merely assumes in advance that our attitudes have such justification.
Taking the principle of utility as established, Bentham concludes with a discussion of how we are to apply it. He distinguishes four sources of pleasure and pain: physical, political, moral, and religious. He then discusses the various ways in which pleasures and pains can be quantitatively different. Determining our moral obligations requires weighing various pleasures and pains against each other, and seeking the greatest balance between them. Bentham notes that we needn't perform such calculations every time we act, but insists that we should always keep them in the back of our mind.
-What is the principle of utility, and how does Bentham think it can be established? Does the principle of utility provide a reliable guide to our moral obligations? Defend your answer.

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Definitions:

Fundamental Attribution

The tendency to overestimate the influence of personality traits and underestimate the influence of situational factors when evaluating someone else's behavior.

Cognitive Dissonance

The mental discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, leading to psychological tension and behavior change.

Elaboration Likelihood

A theory in social psychology that suggests there are two routes to attitude change: the central route, which involves careful thought, and the peripheral route, which relies on superficial cues.

Self-Perception Theory

A psychological theory suggesting that people develop their attitudes and opinions by observing their own behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused them.