Political Science · Western Political Thought
UGC NET October 2022 Political Science
Who was the founder of utilitarianism?
ABentham ✓ Correct
BJames Mill
CDavid Hume
DPriestley
Correct answer: (A) Bentham — The founder of utilitarianism is Jeremy Bentham.
Explanation
★The founder of utilitarianism is Jeremy Bentham.
★Bentham, who lived from 1748 to 1832, built modern utilitarianism on the principle of the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
★An action is right insofar as it maximises pleasure and minimises pain, which he called the two sovereign masters of mankind.
★He devised the felicific or hedonistic calculus to measure pleasures and pains by intensity, duration, certainty, and similar dimensions.
★James Mill and David Hume shaped utilitarian thought, and Priestley's phrase inspired Bentham, but none of them founded the school.
★The tradition then passed to John Stuart Mill, who refined it by distinguishing higher from lower pleasures.
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