Utilitarianism was a radical theory to put forward at the end of the eighteenth century. One reason was that in calculating happiness everyone's happiness was equal; in Bentham's words, ‘Everybody to count for one, nobody to count for more than one’. No one gets special treatment. The pleasure of an aristocrat counted no more than the pleasure of a poor worker. That was not how society was ordered then. Aristocrats had a very great influence over how land was used, and many even had a hereditary right to sit in the House of Lords and decide on the laws of England. Not surprisingly, some felt
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