Cabrejas, Stephanie Rose D.

J Jeremy Betham on Utilitarianism

4H5 August 6, 2010

An Evaluation of Bentham’s Concept of Utilitarianism

Would you suffer pain in order to gain happiness? You may think twice. It is hard to

decide on something when it involves pain. Thus, the idea of Utilitarianism arises. The general

idea of the principle of utility primarily focuses on evaluating man’s action according to the

consequence it will result to. Man would resolve to arrange his action to that ends in pleasure

than pain. Pleasure and Pain motivates us in making decisions and actions believing that what

when an action causes us happiness and diminish pain then it is the right thing to do and it gives

the opposite effect then we made an error in decision. Should this always be absolute? For

Bentham it is not, for pleasure should be magnified not only to itself but to its intensity,

proximity, duration, certainty, fecundity and purity. It is not enough that a person reach

happiness. One must also be able to evaluate whether the pleasure they are experiencing is in its

height. Is there no greater pleasure above it? Is the effect in long-term? Is it worth all the pain?

Does it affect the interest of the community? One must evaluate if the pleasure will constitute to

the greater happiness—that of the satisfaction of the society.

Pleasure and Pain, reflect one’s characteristic. What is pleasurable to an individual

measure the value of the person. If a person finds pleasure in cannibalism or masochism then

there might be errors in his/her judgment. Therefore, pleasure and pain in Utilitarian approach

should not be taken individually but in consideration to the general pleasure in relation to

personal pleasure. It is the desire to diminish pain in order to make a better community.
 From the moment one person achieves pleasure, He must evaluate pain in order to decide

whether that pleasure is good or not. Take for example, the excruciating difficulty of writing a

Thesis Paper. For a senior student it is a pre-requisite in order to graduate, but it hard to think of

a good topic to research, finding several literature to support it could mean sleepless nights and

less gimmick. A student therefore sacrifices pleasurable things and experience pain.

Nevertheless, at the end of the semester, when one finally passed the Defense and is guaranteed

to graduate then the student will be experiencing the worth of his works. The pleasure achieved

through pain. It is when one experience pain that they give greater value to pleasure. Was the

pleasure, constitute in greater pleasure?

In Evaluation; Passing the Defense after working hard on constructing and

conceptualizing a Thesis is a distinguished pleasure. The effect of it is long-term since it

improved knowledge and develop academic rigor in one person. The pain experienced through

the process of writing the thesis paid off when one passes the defense therefore giving value to

the pain experienced. It is the culmination of their work. Having passed the Thesis means

graduating there the pleasure of passing the defense leads to the pleasure of graduating (Pleasure

leading toward another pleasure). By the end of the year, pain will be diminished it will be all

charged to experience but the pleasure of achieving sometime will lingers and stays(sum of all

pleasure and pain, pleasure is of greater essence). The time the student graduated, he/she will be

able to find a job therefore be able to help his/her family and even pay taxes that will be used for

the government funds, The pleasure of passing the defense and producing a thesis leads further to

the improvement of one’s family and one’s society.

The principle of utility therefore emphasized that one should have better realization of the

things that are pleasurable for them. They must be able to assess whether the pleasure they want
constitute to the betterment of the society or just address one’s selfish interest. A person above

all, must examine themselves in order to identify whether their values are right in moral terms. If

not then move to correct it, instead of wanting to engage in corruption just for the mere pleasure

of moneymaking try to assess the consequence. You may be rich for a moment but pleasure is

short-term if there is error in intention. What is long-term to an erroneous notion is Pain, and that

pain will be experience in jail for years. It is then an individual should always strive for to the

parallelism of their interest to the interest of the society because through this one does not only

find pleasure for themselves but also contribute to find greater happiness to the community.