Who is Jeremy Bentham?

Jeremy Bentham was a really smart person who thought about what makes people happy.

He wanted to make sure people were as happy as possible, and he came up with something called utility, which is like the amount of happiness or satisfaction you get from doing something. Think of it like when you eat your favorite snack: that’s utility in action!

Bentham believed that if we do things that give us more utility, we’ll be happier. So he came up with a way to measure this, kind of like a scorecard for happiness.

He called his idea the greatest happiness principle: the best actions are those that make the most people as happy as possible, or at least don’t make them too sad.

Imagine you're choosing between two ice cream flavors. One is chocolate, which you love, and one is vanilla, which you like a little less. According to Bentham, choosing chocolate gives you more utility, so that’s the better choice, just like picking the most delicious snack!