Editing Consequentialism (section)

===Utilitarianism===
{{Main|Utilitarianism}}
[[File:Jeremy Bentham by Henry William Pickersgill detail.jpg|thumb|[[Jeremy Bentham]], best known for his advocacy of [[utilitarianism]]]]

{{blockquote|Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think...| Jeremy Bentham, ''The Principles of Morals and Legislation'' (1789) Ch I, p 1
}}

In summary, [[Jeremy Bentham]] states that people are driven by their interests and their fears, but their interests take precedence over their fears; their interests are carried out in accordance with how people view the consequences that might be involved with their interests. ''[[Happiness]]'', in this account, is defined as the [[Maximization (psychology)|maximization]] of pleasure and the [[Minimisation (psychology)|minimization]] of pain. It can be argued that the existence of [[phenomenal consciousness]] and "[[qualia]]" is required for the experience of pleasure or pain to have an ethical significance.<ref>{{Cite journal |pmc=4001209 |pmid=24791144|year=2014 |last1=Levy |first1=N. |title=The Value of Consciousness |journal=Journal of Consciousness Studies |volume=21 |issue=1–2 |pages=127–138 }}</ref><ref>Shepherd, Joshua. 2018. [https://library.oapen.org/viewer/web/viewer.html?file=/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/30007/650113.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y ''Consciousness and Moral Status'']. Routledge. {{ISBN|9781315396347}}. {{Hdl|20.500.12657/30007}}.</ref>

Historically, ''[[hedonistic utilitarianism]]'' is the paradigmatic example of a consequentialist moral theory. This form of utilitarianism holds that what matters is to aggregate happiness; the happiness of everyone, and not the happiness of any particular person. [[John Stuart Mill]], in his exposition of hedonistic utilitarianism, proposed a hierarchy of pleasures, meaning that the pursuit of certain kinds of pleasure is more highly valued than the pursuit of other pleasures.<ref name="Mill">{{Cite book| title = Utilitarianism | year = 1998 | last = Mill | first = John Stuart | author-link = John Stuart Mill | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford | isbn = 978-0-19-875163-2 | url = http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill1.htm}}</ref> However, some contemporary utilitarians, such as [[Peter Singer]], are concerned with maximizing the satisfaction of preferences, hence ''[[preference utilitarianism]]''. Other contemporary forms of utilitarianism mirror the forms of consequentialism outlined below.