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Why did Jeremy Bentham consider pleasure and pain the main guides of human action?

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Jeremy Bentham: auto-icon — Utilitarianism English philosopher and economist Jeremy Bentham's preserved skeleton in his own clothes and surmounted by a wax head, at University College London.

Jeremy Bentham posited that nature has placed humanity under the governance of two "sovereign masters": pleasure and pain. For Bentham, these two sensations serve as the fundamental guides of human action because they dictate what is perceived as good or bad.12

Specifically, Bentham argued that:
* Motivation: Anything deemed "good" is either directly pleasurable or serves as a means to obtain pleasure or avoid pain. Conversely, anything "bad" is either directly painful or leads to pain and the deprivation of pleasure.1
* Ethical Foundation: Because these sensations are the primary drivers of human behavior, Bentham believed that moral concepts like "right" and "wrong" only hold meaning when aligned with the utilitarian principle: actions are right if they increase the net surplus of pleasure over pain and wrong if they decrease it.1

Bentham sought to create a comprehensive ethical system based on this principle, envisioning a "hedonic calculus" where the consequences of actions could be weighed by summing the units of pleasure and pain for everyone affected.13