Utilitarianism: Bentham and Mill

📋 Course Outline

1. Bentham’s Act Utilitarianism
2. The Hedonic Calculus
3. Mill’s Rule Utilitarianism
4. The Calculation Problem
5. Rights and Rule Utilitarianism

📖 1. Bentham’s Act Utilitarianism

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Principle of utility : Bentham — states that an action is good if it maximises pleasure
• Consequentialism : evaluates an action according to the consequences it produces

📝 Essential Points

• Bentham claimed that human nature finds pleasure good and that human beings are incapable of valuing anything else.

💡 Memory Hook

Pleasure maximisation → morally right action

📖 2. The Hedonic Calculus

📝 Essential Points

• Bentham’s hedonic calculus is a list of 7 criteria, including intensity and duration, used to calculate how much pleasure an action will produce.

• Act utilitarianism requires doing the action that produces the greatest net pleasure after applying the hedonic calculus. — Bentham

💡 Memory Hook

Assess pleasure → calculate net pleasure → act

📖 3. Mill’s Rule Utilitarianism

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Rule utilitarianism : Mill — judges which social rules will maximise happiness if followed and requires people to follow those rules