A-Bentham and Mill's Understanding of Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham dismissed appeal to the Bible, conscience or Natural Law as empty and meaningless. He was a radical empiricist, believing that knowledge had to come from the senses, he also thought it was possible to provide a single scientifically objective standard of morality (The Principle of Utility). Bentham thought human beings should classify and measure any action in terms of how many units of pain or pleasure it will produce. Bentham was a hedonist; he believed that pleasure was the only good and pain the only evil. He devised a Hedonic Calculus, by which he thought it possible to compare quantitatively pleasure and pain. He would ask seven questions to determine the value of pleasure, they were:-

Act Utilitarianism says that we ought to do the act with the best consequences. A person ought to act on each and every occasion to produce the greatest utility (good, happiness, pleasure) for the greatest number of people that is, on each occasion a person is to determine which act will produce the greatest benefits and then do that act everyone affected by the act is to be counted in the calculations if we designate the net benefit of an act as its utility, then people should act on each occasion to produce the greatest amount of utility, or act so as to maximise utility for the greatest number of people

5. Certainty - How sure we are that it will come

Rule Utilitarianism says a person ought to act in accordance with the rule that, if generally followed, would produce the greatest amount of utility for the greatest number of people. It is not concerned w

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