Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) is considered the founder of what we know as act utilitarianism. He based his theory of utilitarianism around the principle of utility, which says “when choosing a course of action, one should always pick the one that will maximize happiness and minimize unhappiness for the greatest number of people.” (Bentham from Rosenstand pg.176) In any given situation, the act utilitarian would ask him or herself, “How much pleasure or pain would result if I did this action now?”

The key words in that question are pleasure and act, or action. This theory only focuses on the individual actions of any given person, and the amount of pleasure that will be benefited

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was an advocate of a different form of utilitarianism. This form is called rule utilitarianism. Mill was the son of Bentham’s friend and collaborator James Mill, for he studied under both of them. However as he got older, he disagreed with parts of Bentham’s theory. He didn’t agree with the fact that Bentham didn’t think the differences between various pleasures mattered. Possibly because of his own nervous breakdown, Mill thought that emotions played a greater role in one’s happiness. He thought more intellectual pleasures such as music, poetry, theater, and not to mention love, gave one a higher sense of happiness.

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