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Essay / Jeremy Bentham's Theory of Utilitarianism
This essay is a compelling essay on Bentham's utilitarianism, a theory propagated by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century and clarified by his student John Stuart Mill in the 19th century. Utilitarianism posits that morality is about maximizing happiness and pleasure while minimizing pain and unhappiness. In this theory, goodness is linked to human well-being, and anything that makes life better and easier is considered good, while anything that makes life worse or causes evil is considered evil. Utilitarianism considers all the good and bad consequences of a behavior or action when the consequences emerge during or after the performance. A utilitarian will consider alternative actions and evaluate the good and bad consequences of each behavior before deciding which action to take. Utilitarianism upholds the moral truth that the rightness of an action depends on the good and bad consequences of the action and the situation that arises in the process. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay As I said earlier, these acts of utilitarianism were propagated by Jeremy Bentham. Jeremy was an English philosopher and radical politician. Starting from moral philosophy, Jeremy Bentham calls it the happiness principle or the utility principle. The moral obligation is to give as much happiness as possible to as many people as possible, and happiness is determined by pleasure and the non-occurrence of pain (Iep.utm.edu, 2018). Thus, Bentham writes: "By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of any action whatsoever, according to the tendency, which amounts to the same thing, in other words, to promote or oppose this happiness” (Iep.utm. edu, 2018). And Jeremy Bentham also said that anything that does not maximize happiness is considered morally wrong. The rule of utilitarianism exists when John Stuart Mill tries to save his teacher, Jeremy Bentham, when Bentham's principle of utility is questioned by the community. Mill tried to limit Bentham's theory as much as possible to the rule of utilitarianism. When we compare the rule of utilitarianism and the act of utility, both of these principles focus on the rightness of an action. Based on the theory of hedonism, it's all about pleasure and focusing only on pleasure. This principle concerns a person's happiness and satisfaction in goods and services. The strength of utilitarianism is to minimize pain, maximize happiness, and make an individual's life better. It is also easy to reveal the principle that utilitarianism is right and its principles are widely accepted. Next, the weakness of utilitarianism is that happiness and satisfaction cannot always be the main goal of a person's life. This theory amounts to humiliating humans. This humiliates the human to the animal level because this theory talks about people's goal which only focuses on pleasure..