Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation"

Bentham's "Anarchical Fallacies"

key terms

principle of utility

utilitarianism

pleasure/pain as related to right/wrong; right/wrong in context of happiness

natural human tendency to avoid suffering;

click to edit

physical sanction - happens due to ordinary course of nature (ex: cigarette smokers; increased cause of cancer --> sanction/motivation limiting smoking)

political sanction (political created)

moral or popular sanction --> affects how public views someone who conducts an act that is disapproved

religious sanction (penalty from superior being)

sanctions regulate human conduct! "capable of giving a binding force to any law or rule of conduct"

Ch 4: how to measure pain

hedonic/felicific calculus to determine the moral rightness of an action by calculating the amount of pain/pleasure it can produce

7 criteria (intensity, duration, cerrtainty, remoteness [how far in the future the pleasure/pain is], fecundity [will this lead to pleasure/pain of the same kind in the future], purity, extent [number of peeps affected)

click to edit

to determine the effect of an act on the interests of the community: start w/ one person affected by act and add value of the direct pleasure, direct pain, secondarily pleasurable outcomes, secondarily painful outcomes); add pleasure subtract pain; result = positive, then act is good for indoividual; take account of all numbers of ppl affected by act, repeat process to calculate ovearall effect

"WE SHOULD ALWAYS ACT SO AS TO PRODUCE THE GREATEST GOOD FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER"

click to edit

Bentham's "Anarchical Fallacies"

argues against natural rights/social contact theory; natural rights is a fallacy + leads to anarchy and disorder

natural rights = based on false assumption that a universal moral law governs human behavior, but this lacks a universal standard/structure... !! all legal principles are human creations that are based on social utility and the general welfare of society, and the idea of natural rights does not fit this structure

social contract theory is flawed bc it assumes that indics have an inherent right to property/freedom, which is not supported by any natural law

the only legitimate basis for gov = the principle of utility (greatest happiness of the greatest #);

the role of the gov is to promote the general welfare of society + ensure that individual rights and interests are balanced w/ the overall good of the community;