JEREMY BENTHAM (1748-1832)

The

Principle of Utility 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 determine what we shall do. This is the classic opening of Bentham in his work entitled Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. To be subject to pleasure and pain is a fact we all recognize, and that we desire pleasure and pain is a fact we all recognize, and that we desire pleasure and want to avoid pain is also a fact. The principle of utility means that principle which approves and

disapproves of every action whatsoever according to

the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish.happiness. He says that only about an action that is conformable to the principle of utility [can] one always says either that it is one that ought to be done or that it is a right action Bentham was aware that he had not proved that happiness is the basis of good and right but this was not an oversight rather, it is the very nature of the principle. He says that it cannot be demonstrate its validity nor is it susceptible to any proof.

Since Bentham cannot prove its validity, he demonstrated that the so-called higher theories of morality were either reducible to the principle of utility or else were inferior to this principle because they had no clear meaning or could not be constantly followed. He set the social contract theory as an explanation for our obligation to obey the law. He also argues that the obligation obey, even in the contract theory itself, rests upon the principle utility, for it really says that the greatest happiness of the greater number can only be achieved if we obey the law for obedience is better because disobedience does more harm than good. Bentham says that this the same case

when others say that goodness and the right in an act are determined by our moral sense or understanding or right reason or the theological principle of the will of God. These are all similar can be reduced to the principle of utility. Therefore, only pains and pleasures can give us the real value of actions and in private and public life we are in analysis all concerned with maximizing happiness.

The Sanctions
Pain and pleasure can also constitute the efficient causes of our behavior. Bentham distinguished four sources from which pleasures and pains can come and identified these as causes of our behavior, calling them sanctions. Sanction is what gives binding force to a rule of conduct or to a law, and these four sanctions are named the physical, the political, the moral and the religious sanctions. Through an example, Bentham explained the character of each by giving a situation. A mans goods, or his person, are consumed by fire. If this happened to him by

what is called accident, it was a calamity: if by reason of his own imprudence, it may be styled as punishment of the physical sanction: if it happened to him by the sentence of the political magistrate, a punishment belonging to the political sanction; that is, what is commonly called a punishment if for want of any assistance which his neighbor withheld from him out of some dislike to his moral character, a punishment of the moral sanction: if by an immediate act of Gods displeasure, manifested on account of some sin committed by him a punishment of the religious sanction.

In all these form, the sanction is the threat of pain. Through the concept of sanction, obligation is now given a new value which now meant not some undefined duty but the prospect of pain if one did not obey the moral or legal rule.

The Pleasure-Pain Calculus

Pleasure and pain differ from each other and have therefore different values. Bentham, at an attempt to mathematical precision, speaks of units or what he called lots, of pleasure or pain, suggesting that before we act, we should and really do, calculate the values of these lots. The value depends upon a pleasures intensity,

duration, certainty and propinquity or nearness. If other consequence will be considered, other circumstances must be calculated such as pleasures fecundity, or its chances of being followed by more of the same sensations, that is by more pleasure, and its purity, or the chances that pleasure will not be followed by pleasure but by pain. Another circumstance is a pleasures extent, that is, the number of persons to whom it extends or who are affected by it.

Law and Punishment Bentham used the connection with law and punishment to make an impressive use of the principle of utility. As it is the function of the legislator to discourage some acts and encourage others, how shall classify those that should be discouraged as against those that should be encouraged.

The Object of Law Benthams method of legislation was to measure the mischief of an act and this mischief consisted in the consequences, the pain or evil inflicted by the act, and the acts that produce evil must be discouraged. According to Bentham, there are both primary and secondary evils. The law is concerned with augmenting the total happiness of the community, and it must do this by discouraging those acts that would produce evil consequences.

Punishment
Bentham said that all punishment is in itself evil because it inflicts suffering and pain and at the same time, the object which all laws have in common, is to augment the total happiness of the community. From utilitarians point of view, if punishment is to be justified it must be shown that the pain inflicted by the punishment must in some way prevent or exclude some greater pain. Thus, it must be useful in achieving a greater aggregate of pleasure and happiness and has no justification if its effect is simply to add still more units or lots of pain to the community.

This is not to say that utilitarianism rejects the category of punishment but only that the principle of utility called for a reopening of the question of why society should punish offenders and urged the reclassification of cases that are meet and unmeet for punishment. Punishment should not be inflicted;

a. where it is groundless b. where it must be inefficacious where it cannot prevent a mischievous act c. where it is unprofitable or too expensive d. where it is needless

Bentham describes the desirable properties of each unit or lot of each by considering the proportion between punishments and offenses, and he gives the following rules:

Punishment must great enough to outweigh the profit that the offender might get from the offense. The greater the offense, the greater the punishment Where two offenses come in competition, the punishment for the greater offense must be sufficient to induce a man to prefer the less

Punishments should be variable and adaptable to fit the particular circumstances, although each offender should get the same punishment for the same offense The amount of punishment should never be

greater than the minimum required to make it effective The more uncertain that an offender will be caught, the greater should be the punishment If an offense is habitual, the punishment must outweigh not only the profit of the immediate offense but of the undiscovered offenses

Through these rules Bentham arrives in the conclusion that punishment should be variable to fit the particular case, equable so as to inflict equal pain for similar offenses, commensurable in order that punishments for different classes of crimes be proportional characteristic so as to impress the imagination of potential offenders, frugal so as not to be excessive, reformatory in order to correct faulty behavior, disabling in order not to create a new problems, punishment should have popular acceptance and be capable of remittance for sufficient cause.

Benthams Radicalism According to Bentham the cause of the principle of utility came from the very structure of the aristocratic society of his day. He said that those in power did not want the greatest happiness of the greatest number. They were more concerned of their own interests. To him, the solution to this conflict is to identify the rulers and the ruled, or to put the government into the hands of the people. It is in democracy where the greatest happiness of the greatest number is most apt to be realized, for the rulers are the people and representatives of the people are chosen precisely

because they promise to serve the greatest good. Benthams radicalism consisted in his desire to press for major social reforms in order to put in his philosophical principles into practice, and his reforms were required in order to construct the kind of society and legal process that could most likely contribute the greatest happiness to the greatest number.