Question

Who criticized the bentham's philosophy as pig philosophy?

Answer 1

Answer:

Now many of us would immediately recognize the injustice of condemning an innocent man, but two individuals actually put forward an idea that, at its core, would actually justify this decision and call it moral.

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) were both British and were the proponents of a moral system based on utility. Both being atheists, and having rejected any dogmatic or objective claims of right and wrong, they tried to devise a moral philosophy that was based on something that was common to all human beings: the aversion to pain and the desire for pleasure. In essence, utilitarianism was a modernization of first century B.C. Epicurian philosophy.

Jeremy Bentham started the ball rolling when he rejected Christian morality and put forth the idea that the maximization of pleasure and the minimization of pain was the basis for all morality. The key to a good action was that it maximized pleasure for the greatest number of people. Based on this premise Bentham proceeded to construct a scale, or calculus, which measured pleasure and pain. All pleasure was of equal value and the only criteria were intensity and duration. Shakespeare, then, was as good as soap operas, Bach was equal to the Beatles and Tolstoy’s War and Peace was on par with the Twilight trilogy. Bentham argued that:

“…the utility of all these arts and sciences, …the value which they possess, is exactly in proportion to the pleasure they yield. Every other species of preeminence which may be attempted to be established among them is altogether fanciful. Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciencesof music and poetry. If the game of push-pin furnish more pleasure, it is more valuable than either.”[i]

This reduction of ethics to simply the calculation of pleasure over pain for the greater number caused Thomas Carlyle to describe Utilitarianism as “Pig Philosophy” for it based the goal of ethics on the swinish pleasures of the majority. John Stuart Mill restated Carlyle’s objection as such: “To suppose that life has no higher end than pleasure—no better and nobler object of desire and pursuit—they designate as utterly mean and groveling; as a doctrine worthy only of swine.”[ii]

John Stuart Mill took up the Utilitarian torch from Bentham and tried to address the criticisms against Utilitarianism.

Explanation:

Answer 2

The answer is Thomas Carlyle.

• Thomas Carlyle was a misanthropic Victorian essayist who criticized Bentham's philosophy as 'Pig Philosophy.'

• Jeremy Bentham was a philosopher, economist, and jurist, and he founded the philosophy of modern utilitarianism.

• This philosophy held that all actions giving happiness and pleasure are morally right, and the actions which cause grief and pain are morally wrong.

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