SECTION IV: What is it worth?

Where Kant advances a deontological moral philosophy, identifying moral action in terms of personal duty, Jeremy Bentham's moral philosophy is consequentialist: i.e., it determines the moral quality of an act by reference to the consequences, or effects, of the act. This constitutes a fundamental difference in moral theory. Kant specifically separates the moral quality of an act from its effects. But for the consequentialist, what matters, that by which we judge "good" and "bad", "right" and "wrong", is the outcome of an act, and in particular, the outcome in terms of impact on sentient beings, humans in particular. We think that insults are wrong because they are hurtful; kindness is good because it brings pleasure. The various conditions constituting human happiness are what we should understand to be good, for the consequentialist, not an abstraction such as the motivation of an act.

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"By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question; or what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness. I say of every action whatsoever; and therefore not only of every action of a private individual, but of every measure of government."

Bentham's Auto-Icon - University College, London

Did you know: Bentham's will stipulated the preservation of his clothed body for posterity. It is said sometimes to attend college meeting, "present but not voting." For more information, see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/who/autoicon.

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