Jeremy Bentham's "Classical Utilitarianism"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that utilitarianism is defined as the idea that individuals and government should attempt to do the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. The author points out that Bentham's argument is based on individual rather than collective rights. The paper concludes that it is only the majority rule of individuals that determines what is right or wrong according to community dictates, and above all, the same process is applicable to pleasure and pain, in whatever shape they appear.

From the Paper:

"If a person fears pain, it is thus much worse if it is very intense, for a long duration, is close at hand, is certain, is apt to be given again, and will not be followed by pleasure. Perhaps an example might be, to take a relatively benign comparison. Who is in more pain of the following two students? A poor student, facing the SATs the next morning, who must take the test and is compelled to do so by his zealous parents, but feels he or she is doomed to failure versus a good student, offered the option of taking an extra credit quiz at some point in the semester, the time of which he or she may choose, of less than a half-hour's time, followed by a pizza party? The individual in the most pain, in the scenarios, is intuitively obvious, even if one does not grade the two upon Bentham's scales of intensities of pain and pleasure."

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