Jeremy Bentham · Philosophy
Bentham’s founding idea: that pleasure and pain are the only real goods and evils, and that the one rational test of any action or law is whether it tends to increase or diminish happiness - <em>the greatest happiness of the greatest number</em>.
You learned that Bentham grounded morality in a single measurable standard: an action is right insofar as it tends to augment the happiness of everyone whose interest is at stake, and that this ‘greatest happiness principle’ applies equally to private conduct and to legislation. Explain the principle and w…
Leads to John Stuart Mill.
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