Utilitarianism

Abstract

Jeremy Bentham added these ‘memoriter verses’ to a revised edition of An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation to fix in the reader’s mind those points ‘on which the whole fabric of morals and legislation may be seen to rest’ (Bentham, 1789, p. 38). And indeed, although his formulation equates utility with pleasure in a way that many contemporary utilitarians would reject, Bentham does implicitly identify the central propositions that continue to inform philosophical utilitarianism today: i.e. (1) individual well-being ought to be the end of moral action; (2) each individual is to ‘count for one and no more than one’; and (3) the object of social action should be to maximize general utility (or, in Bentham’s phrase, to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number).

Intense, long, certain, speedy, fruitful, pure —

Such marks in pleasures and in pains endure.

Such pleasures seek if private by thy end;

If it be public, wide let them extend.

Such pains avoid, whichever be thy view;

If pains must come, let them extend to few.