Bentham 1748-1832
Readings: Chapters 1 and 4 from On the Principles of Morals and Legislation. available at http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/text/bentham/benthpri.htm ) Look up "hedonistic calculus" and "utilitarianism" in Angeles.
I. Biographical Information
You can view Bentham’s body in its case at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/info/auto-iconhtm.htm
Bentham's Life or Death Mask at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/representations/mask1.htm
II. Chapter One: Definitions & the Principle of Utility
A. Principle of Utility
1. Basis in nature
2. Defined
a. principle
b. utility
c. party concerned
3. Relationship between utility of individual and community - What if interests of individuals or individuals vs. community are in conflict?
4. Principle of Utility determines - ought, right and wrong - No standard of ought, right and wrong apart from principle or utility. Lists ten steps to take if one has a different view.
5. Teleological - Consequential: Consequences Not Motives
III. Chapter Four: Hedonic Calculus (Calculus of Felicity)
A. Consider Value by following 7 circumstances - elements or dimensions of value.
1. Intensity - Strong or Weak
2. Duration - Long or Short
3. Certainty or Uncertainty
Have to estimate the chances we will actually obtain pleasures and/or pains if we act a specific way
4. Propinquity or remoteness (speediness)
Estimate how soon we will get the expected pleasures or pains. Shouldn't choose near pleasures and ignore future pains.
5. Fecundity (Fruitfulness) -
"the chance it has of being followed by, sensations of the same kind: that is, pleasures, if it be a pleasure: pains, if it be a pain. " (Bentham, Chapter 4, III. No. 5.)
6. 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. " (Bentham, Chapter 4. III. No. 6)
Note: Fecundity and purity not features or circumstances of pleasures and pains but of actions. Bentham writes of measuring these:
3. Of the value of each pleasure which appears to be produced by it after the first. This constitutes the fecundity of the first pleasure and the impurity of the first pain.
4. Of the value of each pain which appears to be produced by it after the first. This constitutes the fecundity of the first pain, and the impurity of the first pleasure. (http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/text/bentham/benthpri.htm - Accessed 3-7-01. Copyright 1996, James Fieser (jfieser@utm.edu). This e-text was scanned from The Works of Jeremy Bentham (1838-1843), edited by John Bowring.)
7. Extent - " the number of persons to whom it extends; or (in other words) who are affected by it." (Bentham, Chapter 4. IV. 7)
Memory Verse from Footnote 15 of Bentham’s On the Principles of Morals and Legislation:
Intense, long, certain, speedy, fruitful, pure --
Such marks in pleasures and in pains endure.
Such pleasures seek if private be thy end:
If it be public, wide let them extend.
Such pains avoid, whichever by thy view:
If pains must come, let them extend to few.
(http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/text/bentham/benthpri.htm - Accessed 3-7-01. Copyright 1996, James Fieser (jfieser@utm.edu). This e-text was scanned from The Works of Jeremy Bentham (1838-1843), edited by John Bowring.)
B. Sum up and balance for individual. For group sum up and balance for each individual involved.
IV. Quantitative utilitarianism:
"... push-pin is as good as poetry." (Bentham quotation given in J. S. Mill, "Bentham," in John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism, On Liberty, and Essay on Bentham. Ed. M. Warnock. [New American Library, 1974] 123. Quantitative and qualitative utilitarianism are discussed in S. Stumpf, Socrates to Sartre. 6th ed. [Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1999] 346-47 where the quote is also used.)
The difference between what Bentham wrote and what Mill wrote that Bentham wrote. I recently discovered that Mill's statement about Bentham's views on pushpin and poetry might be considered slightly misleading. See what you think:
Bentham by John Stuart Mill see Section 4 at http://www.la.utexas.edu/research/poltheory/jsmill/diss-disc/bentham/bentham.s04.html Check out paragraph 19: "He says, somewhere in his works, that, 'quantity of pleasure being equal, push-pin is as good as poetry'';"
Rationale of Reward, Book 3, Chapter 1 by Jeremy Bentham at http://www.la.utexas.edu/labyrinth/rr/rr.b03.c01.html Here is a brief excerpt from paragraphs eight and nine:
The utility of all these arts and sciences,—I speak both of those of amusement and curiosity,—the value which they possess, is exactly in proportion to the pleasure they yield. Every other species of preeminence which may be attempted to be established among them is altogether fanciful. Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry. If the game of push-pin furnish more pleasure, it is more valuable than either. Everybody can play at push-pin: poetry and music are relished only by a few. The game of push-pin is always innocent: it were well could the same be always asserted of poetry. . . . . If poetry and music deserve to he preferred before a game of push-pin, it must be because they are calculated to gratify those individuals who are most difficult to be pleased.
All the arts and sciences, without exception, inasmuch as they constitute innocent employments, at least of time, possess a species of moral utility, neither the less real or important because it is frequently unobserved. They compete with, and occupy the place of those mischievous and dangerous passions and employments, to which want of occupation and ennui give birth. They are excellent substitutes for drunkenness, slander, and the love of gaming.
At any rate: For a quantitative utilitarian mental pleasures and pains differ from physical ones only in terms of quantity. There are not different types or kinds of pleasure or pain. The pleasure from eating an ice cream cone or reading a classic novel are of the same type. However, reading the classic novel might produce a greater quantity of pleasure due to fecundity or other factors.