Mill had begun as an unflinching advocate of the stern old utilitarianism of his father and Ricardo.
And yet his utilitarianism was mingled with another strain; and one difficulty for his readers is precisely that his attack seems to combine two lines of argument not obviously harmonious.
The account of Fitzjames's experience at Cambridge recalls memories of the earlier group who discussed utilitarianism under the leadership of Charles Austin and looked up to James Mill as their leader.
Even Utilitarianism cannot consistently admit of anything indifferent within the province of moral valuation, since two opposite modes of conduct can hardly produce absolutely the same sum of happiness.
According to Bentham, the rectitude of utilitarianism has been contested only by those who have not known their own meaning:--"When a man attempts to combat the principle of utility .
This pragmatic utilitarianism was to be the philosophical foundation of his revolution.
Nor is there in Bentham's defence of Utilitarianism argument in which he would have recognized novelty.
But he has little or nothing of Priestley's utilitarianismand the whole argument is upon the abstract basis of right.
Nevertheless the basis upon which he defended his ideas was a utilitarianism hardly less complete than that which Bentham made the instrument of revolution.
Utilitarianism is, of course, above all a method; and it is not unfair to say of Hume that he did not get very far beyond insistence on that point.
And with Locke, as with the Benthamites, his clear sense of what utilitarianism demanded led to an over-emphasis of human rationalism.
The cynicism of Mandeville, the utilitarianism of Hume, are only bypaths of the same tradition.
His distinction between innate faculties evolved by experience and innate ideas independent of experience, 121, note Religion, theological utilitarianism subverts natural, i.
Condillac, cause of the attractiveness of utilitarianism to, i.
Sidenote] Critique ofutilitarianism and the reform of Ethic and of Economic.
The criticism of ethicalutilitarianism cannot escape by denying this truth and seeking out absurd and inexistent examples of useless moral actions.
Social utilitarianism has stood in need of correction both from psychology and from sociology.
Utilitarianism has not been formulated like the Athanasian Creed.
Utilitarianism consists of a still more unfriendly and unwholesome mixture of two elements, both of them bad, and unable to stand together, Hedonism and Altruism.
The matter is more difficult than a superficial Utilitarianism perceives.
A re-reaction against this bald Utilitarianism has set in; but some of the forms which it takes on can no more be indorsed by the consistent evolutionist than can the system from which it is a revolt.
So-called utilitarianism has injured its own cause by resolving consciousness into a sum of feelings, and society into a collection of individuals.
He defines his position in respect to Utilitarianism as follows: "I have never regarded myself as an Anti-Utilitarian.
Against utilitarianism he urges that, in so far as it makes the happiness of the greatest number its principle, it asserts the right of the majority over a minority, and so advocates, by implication, an absolute subjection to authority.
Utilitarianism involves the further paradox that, to achieve the greatest sum of happiness, each individual must be more egoistic than altruistic.
Sidenote: (a) Ideal of utilitarianismobjected to as unprogressive.
The difference of the evolutionist view from utilitarianism comes out at another point.
Utilitarianism only becomes a practicable end for individual conduct when psychological hedonism has been given up.
Mill's logical defence of utilitarianism:] Mill's attempt to pass by a logical method from psychological hedonism to utilitarianism is an instructive commentary on the difficulties which beset the transition.
It seems to me, therefore, that utilitarianism is a theory compounded out of two quite different elements.
These writers do not seem to have made it quite clear, however, in what wayutilitarianism assumes a stationary condition of human nature, and so formulates conduct in a way unsuited to a progressive state.
Game theory is agent neutral, it is utilitarianism at its apex.
It is the ultimate proof that effort at reconciling utilitarianism with more deontological, agent relative, approaches are dubious, in the best of cases.
On the other hand, the mathematicians, in their cold calculation, reduced music to the utilitarianism of algebra, and even viewed it as a kind of medicine for the nerves and mind.
Music was compared to architecture, and thus the more Greek it was, the better; forgetting that architecture was tied to utilitarianism and poetry to word-symbols, and that painting is primarily an art of externals.
Our tall buildings generally point to utilitarianism and the almighty dollar.
It openly admits what the Categorical Imperative denies and what Utilitarianism veils with vague phrases: that the aim and object of moral action is Pleasure and nothing else.
The opponents of Utilitarianism and Eudaemonism in Ethics, if they speak in good faith, may be excused on the grounds that their analysis of the phenomenon of Morality is shallow.
Its utilitarianism then becomes a kind of spontaneous metaphysics from which we must detach ourselves.
Whether this insistence on natural liberty is to be traced to utilitarianism or to a less specific faith in natural rights, the outcome for the purpose in hand is substantially the same.
Adam Smith will accordingly be considered in immediate connection with the bias of the classical school and the incursion of utilitarianism into economics.
Did not a critical utilitarianismresolve itself into the doctrine of the Rational Social Will?
It is possible to hold to a utilitarianism more circumspect and less startling than Bentham's.
Most uncompromising is the utilitarianism set forth in the writings of Mill's master, that most benevolent and philanthropic of men, Jeremy Bentham.
The characteristic "extent" marks off utilitarianism from egoism, for it has reference to the number of persons affected by the pleasure or the pain.
Whether these intuitions will be accepted as furnishing an indisputably sound basis for utilitarianism will depend upon one's attitude toward intuitions in general and the list of intuitions one is inclined to accept.
Against utilitarianism as an ethical theory various objections have been brought or may be brought.
But, with the catchwords of Utilitarianism ringing in their ears, the commentators ran straight contrary to the true teaching of the Protagoras, consentient as it is with that of the Phaedo and the Philebus.
This acceptance of utilitarianism has produced a very striking effect in modifying the political opinions prevalent in the universities.
Utilitarianism is the proper creed of hard unemotional natures, who do not respond to the more subtle moral influences.
In the eye of Utilitarianism the flowers are but idle shows.
Here is an instance of a very different sort of utilitarianism--the utilitarianism of men who lead a gay town life.
They have an odd mixture in their nature of the coldest utilitarianism and the most extravagant romance.
Inconsistencies of Utilitarianismas the Exclusive Theory of Organic Evolution, quoted, 273.
The Inconsistencies of Utilitarianismas the Exclusive Theory of Organic Evolution.
Aristotle's doctrine is no more to be confused with modern utilitarianism than is Plato's.
The utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill is distinguished by the fact that it places the end of morality in happiness.
