The only purpose, for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community against his will, is to prevent harm to others. J eremy Bentham is considered the father of the modern ethical philosophy of Utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism argues that ethics derives from a calculus of opposites, pleasure and pain.
Whatever increases the net amount of pleasure over pain for society as a whole is good, and whatever does not is not good. The philosophy can admit of pleasures and pains that are more than just physical. Emotional and intellectual consequences are important as well. Though Bentham was a bachelor, he was a close colleague of John Mill, an important philosopher in his own right, and a second father to Mill's son John Stuart. In many real ways, John Stuart Mill, John Mill's son was the product of the educational philosophies of Bentham and Mill.