Utilitarians

What is utilitarianism? It is a moral doctrine and a political-social movement, a theory and a quasi-religion. Its central claim is that the test of an institution, policy, program, rule, or principle should be its contribution to the general utility or happiness of society. If adopting that institution or policy would increase society's general utility, utilitarians approve it. If not, they reject it.

Within moral and political theory, utilitarians' great antagonists have been the advocates of natural rights theory and social contract theory. For utilitarianism disagrees profoundly with their conceptions of the grounds and limits of political authority, of the limits to the right to resistance, and of the criteria for social justice. This does not, however, prevent utilitarians from agreeing with many natural rights theorists or social contract theorists on questions of political policy. Most utiilitarians from the 19th century onward have been liberals--with the notable exception of Fitzjames Stephen--just as have most natural rights theorists and social contract theorists.

One of the chief doctrines of utilitarianism is its claim that happiness is the highest or supreme good. Here is a video of Peter Singer, a leading utilitarian of our day, examining the meaning of that claim and considering arguments for and against it.

Theological Precursors

Richard Cumberland, 1631-1718 (Wikimedia Commons)

De legibus naturae (1672)

Francis Hutcheson, 1694-1746

(Holding a copy of Cicero's De Finibus)

An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725)

John Gay, 1699-1745

Dissertation Concerning the Fundamental Principles of Virtue or Morality (1731)

Abraham Tucker, 1705-1774

The Light of Nature Pursued (1768-78)

William Paley, 1743-1805

Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785)

Non-theological, Enlightenment Precursors

Classical Utilitarianism (including Philosophic Radicalism)

For a good overview of the doctrines of the classical utilitarians and Philosophic Radicals, and of their disagreements with their early socialist rivals, listen to this recording of Bertrand Russell, "The Utilitarians," from his History of Western Philosophy.

Jeremy Bentham, 1748-1832 (Wikimedia Commons)

Also see: Bentham as a youth (Wikimedia Commons)

Also: Bentham as a sage (Wikimedia Commons)

Some Works

-A Fragment on Government (1776)

-A Defence of Usury (1787)

-Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789)

-Draught of a New Plan for the Organization of the Judicial Establishment of France (1790)

-Emancipate Your Colonies! Addressed to the National Convention of France, 1793 (1793)

-Anarchical Fallacies; Being An Examination of the Declarations of Rights Issued during the French Revolution

-Of Laws in General

-Traite de Legislation Civile et Penale, edited by Louis Dumont (1802).

-Catechism of Parliamentary Reform (1809)

-Plan of Parliamentary Reform (1817)

-Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion on the Temporal Happiness of Mankind (1822)

-Book of Fallacies (1824)

-Rationale of Judicial Evidence, edited by J. S. Mill (1827)

1802: Dumont publishes le Traite de Legislation. This work first brought Bentham wide fame, but mostly on the Continent and in Latin America; he was as yet little known in Britain, and his reputation during his life was always greater abroad than at home. As William Hazlitt memorably said in a portrait of him, Bentham's fame increased the further one moved away from his house in Westminster.

1808: Bentham meets James Mill, who persuades him to become a democrat--or, at any rate, a supporter of near-universal suffrage--and to reject his previous endorsement of total rule by enlightened elites. Philosophic Radicalism begins.

1817: In the Plan, which is the published version of the 1809 Catechism, Bentham publicly argues for giving women the vote.

1824: Bentham and James Mill begin publishing The Westminster Review, a journal of ideas which becomes the mouthpiece of the Radicals.

1826: Founding by Bentham and other Radicals of University College London, with the aim of making available in Great Britain a non-confessional university education.

1832: The first Reform Act passed, extending the franchise. A major victory for the Radicals.

1841: End of the peak influence of the Radicals as a political force.

1843, 1851, 1898: The law of judicial evidence in England and Wales is radically revised by statute, in accordance with Bentham's critique and proposals for its reform. For example, it was only with a new statute in 1898 that the criminally accused was allowed to give sworn evidence on his own behalf. This revision has been called a "judicial revolution."

The Philosophic Radicals of the 1810s-1830s

They occupied an intellectual position in Britain analogous to that of the Ideologues in France in the 1790s-1810s, of the Saint-Simonians in France in the 1820s-1830s, and of the Left Hegelians in Germany in the 1830s. Some of the main differences are these. The Ideologues were chiefly interested in theoretical questions and piecemeal reform, while the Radicals were interested chiefly in questions of social reform achieved by converting the elites to their point of view. The Saint-Simonians soon came to advocate both social revolution, and something approaching a new religion, while the Radicals wanted social reform and downplayed the importance of religion. The Left Hegelians wanted social revolution and thought the first step toward it was to attack organized Christianity; the Radicals opposed sudden revolution and preferred not to discuss Christianity as such: ignoring it, they thought, would weaken that part of its influence that was harmful. They preferred to attack selfish solidarity among the powerful, confined moral sentiments, unthinking tradition, speculative fictions that masked injustice, meaningless speech, and bad reasoning.

The greatest of the philosophic radicals was also

The peak of utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873 (Wikimedia Commons)

Moral and political philosopher; philosopher of the social and natural sciences; co-founder with Auguste Comte of positivism; philosopher of mind, language, knowledge and reality; feminist; colonialist; non-essentialist racist; critic of the right of inheritance

Some works

"The Spirit of the Age" (1831)

"De Tocqueville on Democracy in America" (1835; on the 1st volume)

"Bentham" (1838)

"Coleridge" (1840)

"De Tocqueville on Democracy in America" (1840; on the 2nd volume)

A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation (1843)

Principles of Political Economy with Some of their Applications to Social Philosophy (1848)

On Liberty (1859)

Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform (1859)

Utilitarianism (1861)

Considerations on Representative Government (1861)

An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy (1865)

Auguste Comte and Positivism (1865)

The Subjection of Women (1869)

An Autobiography (1873)

Mill's disciples in moral theory

Libertarian and non-liberal utilitarianism

Ideal Utilitarianism

Rule-utilitarianism

Utilitarianism into the 1980s, and the Present