Founding fathers
As said above, Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) are two founding fathers of the theory of utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham, was trained in law. He wrote (http://www.iep.utm.edu/bentham/) :
Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. (Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation Ch. 1) |
For Bentham the only good is pleasure; the only bad is pain. Bentham also says that whether pleasure or pain will be greater or less depends on (Bentham, 1968,17-18):
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Its intensity.
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Its duration.
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Its certainty or uncertainty.
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Its propinquity or remoteness.
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Its fecundity – “the chance it has of not being followed by sensations of the same kind: that is, pleasures, if it be a pleasure: pains if it be a pain.”
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Its purity – “the chance it has of not being followed by sensations of the opposite kind: that is pains, if it be a pleasure: pleasures, if it be a pain.”
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. He was a great champion of individual freedom. For Mill, (Urmson, 1968, 224-229), “morality of an individual action is not a question of direct perception but of the application of a law to an individual case.”
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