Morals and Legislation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Morals and Legislation - Essay ExampleHe argued that the epicurean value of any valet de chambre action is easily calculated by considering how intensely its pleasure is felt, how long that pleasure lasts, how certainly and how quickly it follows upon the performance of the action, and how possible it is to produce collateral bene add ups and avoid collateral harms. Taking such matters into account, we arrive at a net value of each action for any human being affected by it.All that remains, Bentham supposed, is to consider the extent of this pleasure, since the happiness of the community as a whole is nothing other than the sum of idiosyncratic human interests. The linguistic rule of utility, then, defines the meaning of moral obligation by reference to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people who are affected by performance of an action. Similarly, Bentham supposed that social policies are properly evaluated in light of their effect on the general well-being of t he populations they involve. Punishing criminals is an effective way of deterring detestation precisely because it pointedly alters the likely outcome of their actions, attaching the likelihood of future pain in order to outweigh the apparent gain of committing the crime. Thus, punishment must fit the crime by changing the likely perception of the value of committing it. A generation later, utilitarianism found its most effective exponent in John Stuart Mill. raised(a) by his father, the philosopher James Mill, on strictly Benthamite principles, Mill devoted his life to the defence and promotion of the general welfare. With the help his long-time companion Harriet Taylor, Mill became a right on champion of lofty moral and social ideals. Mills Utilitarianism (1861) is an ex endureed explanation of utilitarian moral theory. In an effort to respond to criticisms of the doctrine, Mill not only argued in favor of the basic principles of Jeremy Bentham but also offered several signifi bumt improvements to its structure, meaning, and application. Although the progress of moral philosophy has been limited by its endless disputes over the reality and disposition of the highest good, Mill assumed from the outset, everyone can agree that the consequences of human actions contribute importantly to their moral value. (Utilitarianism 1) Mill fully accepted Benthams devotion to greatest happiness principle as the basic statement of utilitarian value ... actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure. (Utilitarianism 2)But he did not agree that all differences among pleasures can be quantified. On Mills view, some kinds of pleasure experienced by human beings also differ from each other in qualitative ways, and only those who countenance experienced pleasure of both sorts are competent j udges of their relative quality. This establishes the moral worth of promoting higher (largely intellectual) pleasures among sentient beings even when their momentary intensity whitethorn be less than that of alternative lower (largely bodily) pleasures. Even so, Mill granted that the positive achievement of happiness is often