2. Bentham

Bentham’s View of Ethics

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) starts with the following premise: “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters; pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.” ⁵ Thus, he advocated the “principle of utility,” according to which, pleasure and pain are the standards of good and evil.

Bentham calculated pleasure and pain quantitatively, regarding as good any act that brings the greatest pleasure, thus advocating “the greatest happiness of the greatest number” as the guiding principle of his moral philosophy. As to what it is that brings pleasure or pain to people, he stated that “there are four distinguishable sources from which pleasure and pain are in use to flow, … the physical, the political, the moral, and the religious.” ⁶ Among these, he regarded the physical source as the most fundamental one, for only physical pleasure and pain can be calculated objectively. He considered it desirable for as many people as possible to obtain portions of material wealth in an equitable manner.

Contrary to Kant, who argued that pure goodness is not determined by purpose or material interests, Bentham asserted that human conduct can be considered good only when it realizes the greatest happiness for people. Thus, he argued that material happiness must be pursued directly. The Industrial Revolution of England served as the background for Bentham’s thought.

Bentham’s philosophy influenced many thinkers; one of these was Robert Owen (1771-1858), a socialist reformer. Owen incorporated into his thought Bentham’s belief in “the greatest happiness of the greatest number.” Based on this, and under the influence of the French Enlightenment and materialist philosophy, Owen advocated a movement for social reform. Since people are the products of their environment, he thought that if the environment is improved, they will be improved as well, and a happy society can be realized. In order to actualize that ideal, Owen moved to the United States and constructed a New Harmony society of cooperatives in Indiana. This effort, however, ended in failure due to internal divisions among co-workers.

Utilitarians, influenced by this socialist movement, engaged in various activities for social reform. They promoted movements for the reform of electoral laws, the reform of laws concerning the poor, the simplification of legal proceedings, the abolition of crop regulations, the liberation of slaves in colonies, the expansion of suffrage, the reform of the living conditions of working people, and many others, and thus contributed significantly to the impetus to find solutions to the problems in capitalist society.

Unification Thought Appraisal of Bentham’s Perspective of Ethics

Unlike Kant, who advocated goodness as a duty, Bentham asserted that a good act is one which leads to happiness. In this respect, Bentham’s view is more in agreement with Unification Thought. The problem, however, is that Bentham understood happiness as having to do with material pleasure. According to Unification Thought, true happiness for human beings can not be obtained through material pleasure alone. In advanced countries today many people have come to enjoy material prosperity; yet, there are not so many people who regard themselves as truly happy, for many people are affected by the increase in social disorder and crimes in advanced countries. This indicates that utilitarianism is not an effective way to achieve true happiness.

From the Unification Thought viewpoint, Bentham’s thought was proposed for the sake of restoring the environment. In order to realize the ideal society, human beings have to be restored; at the same time, a suitable environment must be prepared. So, from the providential viewpoint, it can be said that such philosophies as Bentham’s utilitarianism become necessary as the Second Advent of Christ approaches. Kant, in contrast to Bentham, can be said to have advocated a philosophy for the sake of restoring human beings.

As pointed out above, utilitarianism was insufficient and fell short of realizing the happiness of humankind. Communism, which appeared later, was, like utilitarianism, a thought for the sake of restoring the environment. Communism moved in the wrong direction, however, in advocating violent revolution. As a result, far from realizing a happy society, Communism created one even more miserable. True human happiness must be realized in terms of both spiritual and material aspects. This is possible only when a standard of goodness is established that can present a unified and harmonious solution for both the spiritual aspects and the material aspects of human nature.