ON THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY, Jeremy Bentham

• The definition of utility

By utility is meant the property in any object that produces benefit or prevents pain to someone. If that someone is the community in general, then it produces the happiness of the community; if that someone is a specific individual, it produces the happiness of that individual.

• The principle on which it is based

An action is conformable with the principle of utility when the tendency it has to increase the happiness of the community is greater than any tendency it has to reduce it.

• The way in which utility can affect policies

Utility can affect policies implying the tendency that increases the happiness of the community to be greater than the one that diminish it.