Utilitarianism Criticism

Utilitarianism, an ethical framework primarily developed by Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century, is based on the idea that actions are morally right if they promote happiness and wrong if they produce the opposite. The philosophy derives from hedonism, emphasizing the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Bentham's principle, often termed the "greatest happiness principle," suggests maximizing happiness for the most significant number of people, as explored in his seminal work An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. This work outlines a system for determining the moral value of actions and the development of legislation that benefits society as a whole, incorporating a method to calculate the effects of actions in terms of pleasure and pain as analyzed by Frederick Rosen.

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