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Classical Utilitarianism from Mill to Hume

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Classical Utilitarianism from Mill to Hume CLASSICAL UTILITARIANISM FROM HUME TO MILL This book presents a new and controversial analysis of the idea of utility, its role in the foundation of morality, and its connection with justice and liberty, from Hume’s Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals to J.S. Mill’s On Liberty and Utilitarianism. The book is situated within the philosophical context of the earlier Epicurean tradition with its emphasis on pleasure, pain and utility on which the main figures discussed in this book – Hume, Smith, Helvétius, Bentham, Paley, and J.S. Mill – drew. The author defines a classical utilitarian tradition, which in turn is defended as a coherent context for understanding important arguments in moral and political philosophy concerned with justice, rights, liberty, individu- ality, equality, and democracy. Classical Utilitarianism from Hume to Mill utilizes a number of disciplines, such as moral and political philosophy, political and social theory, intellectual history, the history of philosophy, and the history of economic thought to present a unique study in two parts. Part I includes chapters on such topics as the major figures in the Scottish and French Enlightenments, Smith and Bentham on the entrepreneur, the religious utilitarianism of Paley, and Mill’s critique of Carlyle and the defence of Bentham. Part II defends classical utilitarianism against a number of common contemporary criticisms concerned with the punishment of the innocent, the sacrifice of some for the happiness of others, democratic despotism or majority tyranny, and the impoverished state of negative liberty. Frederick Rosen is Professor of the History of Political Thought at University College London. He has served as General Editor of The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham, Director of the Bentham Project, and Director of the Centre for Politics, Law and Society at UCL. Among his books are Jeremy Bentham and Representative Democracy (1983) and Bentham, Byron and Greece: Constitutionalism, Nationalism, and Early Liberal Political Thought (1992). He has co-edited several books, was the founding editor of Utilitas, and has contributed numerous articles to various learned journals. ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN ETHICS AND MORAL THEORY THE CONTRADICTIONS OF MODERN MORAL SOCIETY Ethics after Wittgenstein Paul Johnston CLASSICAL UTILITARIANISM FROM HUME TO MILL Frederick Rosen CLASSICAL UTILITARIANISM FROM HUME TO MILL Frederick Rosen First published 2003 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2003 Frederick Rosen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Rosen F. Classical utilitarianism from Hume to Mill/ Frederick Rosen p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.Utilitarianism. 2. Justice (Philosophy) 3. Liberty. I. Title. B843.R67 2003 171' .5--dc21 ISBN 0-203-98735-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0–415–22094–7 (Print Edition) 2003043201 TO THE MEMORY OF H.L.A. HART (1907–1992) AND JOHN M. ROBSON (1927–1995) CONTENTS Preface x Abbreviations xiii 1 Introduction 1 The aims of the book 1 Some notes for moral philosophers 3 A briefer note for political and legal theorists 9 PART I 2 Utility and justice: Epicurus and the Epicurean tradition 15 Epicurus and ancient Epicureanism 16 Gassendi and modern Epicureanism 19 Gassendi’s influence 23 Epicureanism in Grotius and Pufendorf 25 3 Reading Hume backwards: Utility as the foundation of morals 29 Utility in the Enquiry and Treatise 31 The foundational role of utility 33 Benevolence, justice and utility 39 Utility and morality 45 Enquiry versus Treatise 47 Hume and Bentham 48 vii CONTENTS 4 The idea of utility in Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments 58 Utility and justice 60 Smith and Hume on justice 65 Smith on utility: illusion and reality 67 Smith, Hume, and philosophical systems 76 Smith and Bentham 80 5 Helvétius, the Scottish Enlightenment, and Bentham’s idea of utility 82 Hume, Smith, and Helvétius 83 The role of the legislator 86 Utility and virtue 88 Helvétius and Bentham 92 De l’homme 93 Conclusion 95 6 The idea of utility in Smith’s Wealth of Nations 97 The ‘invisible hand’ 99 Unintended consequences and the division of labour 104 Liberty 106 Labour, liberty, and the progressive state 110 7 Bentham and Smith on liberty 114 The opposition to Bentham 116 Defence of Usury and Bentham’s other writings 118 Bentham’s critique of Smith 121 Bentham’s title 129 8 William Paley as a utilitarian 131 Utility 134 Liberty 137 Conclusion 142 9 Liberty, utility, and the reform of the criminal law 144 Liberty and the criminal law 144 Crime and punishment in Beccaria 147 Bentham’s theory of proportion 152 The debate over the death penalty 157 Transportation and imprisonment 160 Enlightenment and reform 162 viii CONTENTS 10 J.S. Mill’s hedonism 166 Mill and Carlyle 169 The Epicurean tradition 172 Quantity and quality 174 Socrates dissatisfied 180 11 J.S. Mill on justice and liberty 185 Justice and utility 186 Justice and liberty 193 Liberty and the fragility of truth 200 PART II 12 Punishment of the innocent 209 The idealist background 211 The post-utilitarian paradigm 214 The rejection of utilitarianism 219 13 Individual sacrifice and the greatest happiness 220 Bentham’s ultimate principle 221 The status of pleasure and pain 223 Secondary principles and rights 225 Maximize and minimize 226 Equality and rights in Bentham and Mill 228 14 The tyranny of the majority 232 Majorities and minorities in practice 232 Interests, security, and equality 234 Popular sovereignty and majority rule 237 Democratic despotism 238 Tyranny of the majority 241 15 Negative liberty 245 Negative liberty in Hobbes and Bentham 246 Bentham and Berlin on civil and political liberty 249 Liberty and democracy 251 Negative liberty worth fighting for 254 Notes 256 Bibliography 264 Index 280 ix PREFACE This book attempts to correct a number of misleading views of classical utilitari- anism common among philosophers, legal and political theorists, historians of economic thought, and intellectual historians. It does so by restating the argu- ments first developed by the major thinkers in this tradition, such as Hume, Smith, Helvétius, Paley, Bentham, and J.S. Mill. Although the book does not attempt a formal defence of utilitarianism, it will provide some of the ingredi- ents for such a defence. These will be found particularly in the numerous discussions of pleasure and pain, taken initially from the Epicurean tradition, and in the account of the connections between utility, justice, and liberty, as developed by these thinkers. In addition, some commonly-held beliefs about defects in this tradition will be shown to be without foundation. It is assumed throughout the book that classical utilitarianism embodies a very rich tradition of philosophical reflection, particularly in ethics and politics, which has tended to be overlooked or simply dismissed by contemporary philosophers. The main account of classical utilitarianism appears in Part I below. Nearly all of the chapters have been written especially for this book, and those that have been presented as seminar papers and/or articles have been revised. I am grateful to Imprint Academic for permission to use material for chapter 2, which appeared in ‘Utility and Justice: Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition’, Polis, 19 (2002): 93–107; and to Elsevier Science Ltd. for material for chapter 4, which appeared as ‘The Idea of Utility in Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments’, History of European Ideas, 26 (2000): 79–103. Part II contains four essays, exploring common criticisms of the classical utili- tarian tradition, all of which have been published before, but have been revised for this book. Chapter 12 considers the criticism of utilitarianism that it allows for or even requires the punishment of the innocent, and chapter 13 takes up the theme of the sacrifice of some people to achieve the greater happiness of others or of the whole community. These appeared in Utilitas as ‘Utilitarianism and the Punishment of the Innocent’, 9 (1997): 23–37, and ‘Individual Sacrifice and the Greatest Happiness: Bentham on Utility and Rights’, 10 (1998): 129–43. My thanks to the editor and to Edinburgh University Press for permission to use this material. Chapter 14 considers the view that some forms of utilitarianism lead to x PREFACE a tyranny of the majority, and was originally published in NOMOS XXXIII on Majorities and Minorities, ed. J.W. Chapman and Alan Werthheimer, by New York University Press in 1990. This material also appears here with the kind permis- sion of the editors and publisher. The final chapter on ‘Negative Liberty’ first appeared as my Inaugural Lecture at University College London in 1990 enti- tled Thinking About Liberty. The essay explores the idea of liberty in utilitarianism through a consideration of Isaiah Berlin’s own inaugural lecture, Two Concepts of Liberty. Professor Berlin very kindly read the published version of the original lecture and sent me numerous comments on its arguments. In writing this book I have been fortunate to receive much assistance and wish to thank: Brian Barry, J.H.
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