Utilitarianism could be summed up by the phrase "the greatest happiness for the greatest number." The idea was first coined by Francis Hutcheson (1694- 1746) who wrote a book called "An inquiry into the original of our ideas of beauty and virtue" Although strictly speaking he is not a Utilitarian; he laid down the very basic ideas of this theory. The theory of utility is later on put forward by David Hume a Scottish philosopher. As a consequentialist Hume believed that is not the action but rather the action is of the best interest of ours or others; despite of his ideas, Hume is not considered as a Utilitarian.
It was Jeremy Bentham who articulated the very first scheme of Utilitarianism. He simply put forward this very idea "the greatest sum of pleasure and the least sum of pain for the greatest sum of people." The way which this was measured was through the application of the Hedonic calculus, which included the following seven criteria: intensity, duration,......

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Title: Utilitarianism
Approximate Word Count: 1281
Approximate Pages: 6 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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