Aris Cem Fırat Özçelik / B1906.050022 / Political History Thought 2
We can see that people have been in various pursuits since ancient times. People chasing
after what they need have done so for their own benefit. What could be more important than
one's own well-being, if we do not include ethical and moral codes. In any environment,
whether under pressure or in a free environment, people act only in their own interests.
Pursuing self-interest is a free and just action for individuals, but what is the viewpoint of law,
philosophy or politics on this situation? For years, philosophers have talked about
freedom,right, happiness, liberty, moral codes, benefit, harm, reason, logic and etc. They
worked on things like that and tried to find a meaning. This search and results of philosophers
have of course affected the individual and political life and created new debates.
To begin with, Since the essence of man is the being of pleasure, he will reach real
happiness if he escapes from harm and goes towards benefit. Nature has placed humanity on
2 foundations (2 supreme masters). There is a two ways; absolute pain or absolute pleasure,
right or wrong, and benefit or harm. People always choose for themselves the most useful
ones. It is the happiness and [1] immutable constitution of all its people. Those who question
this immutable constitution always find meaningless voices instead of reason, and they are on
the dark side instead of the light, explains Jeremy Bentham. Jeremy Bentham is an important
legal philosopher who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. He is the father of social
utilitarianism that is utilitarianism, together with empiricism in the modern sense. Happiness,
Law, moral, religion,utility and pleasure are the three basic things Bentham is based on. [2]He
aimed for the happiness of the individual, the happiness of the society, the happiness of the
government that is the common happiness for everyone. Bentham's philosophy is based on
hedonism. In his view, pain and pleasure are the two main factors that drive human behavior.
The purpose of human behavior is to increase utility (pleasure) and reduce pain. The other
principle is the maximization of social benefit. The other principle is the maximization of
social benefit. Although some individuals are harmed by this policy, if the beneficiary
benefits are higher, this is considered good for the whole society. Society is a fictional
structure made up of individuals. The interest of society is nothing but the sum of the interests
of the individuals who compose it. It is meaningless for him to find or seek that of society
without finding the benefit of the individual in the structure that he first built on the
individual. This work of J. Bentham has also benefited Liberalism a lot. [3] Bentham's ideas
has been directly enemy for the Church. But the basis of Bentham's morality was already
rooted in religion, and it was not complex.
