The Meaning of Bentham's Greatest Happiness Principle

Notes and Discussions THE MEANING OF BENTHAM'S GREATEST HAPPINESS PRINCIPLE The Greatest Happiness Principle has perplexed thinkers from the time it was proposed by Bentham as central to Utilitarianism. Bentham himself was unhappy with the wording of this principle toward the end of his life and considered various formulations of it. His main difficulty did not stem from a vagueness or confusion as to the ends to be achieved, although it has appeared so to some of his critics; but rather in giving an accurate and concise expression to that principle which is to serve as a guide to those ends. In point of fact, such expression is possible, as this article will demonstrate, only by the introduction of a considerable number of qualifications. Without these, no formulation of the Greatest Happiness Principle , including the one that is finally presented in this article, can be understood clearly. Since I will be investigating what Bentham intended to mean by his utilitarian norm, the validity of the grounds upon which the meaning is proffered will be ignored. The absence of an examination of such grounds is innocent in the light of the fact that interesting conclusions may be adduced from both good and bad arguments. II The Greatest Happiness Principle has had an interesting history. Although it did not originate with Bentham----cither in expression or in its ethical and political intent--it has come to be closely associated with Benthamism. At the same time, it cannot be ascribed to Bentham without some qualification. The principle may be traced to such authors as Paley, Priestly, Hutcheson, Helvetius, and Beccaria.1 Among these, the phrase "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" first occurs in Francis Hutcheson's writings.2 Beeearia uses the same phrase in his Dei deUiti e delle pene. 3 There is some conflict of opinion regarding from whom Bentham first learned the phrase. This is not surprising since as David Baumgardt aptly points out, "It See Elie Hal6vy, The Growth of Philosophical Radicalism, trans. Mary Morris (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955), pp. 19, 22; Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave, Palgrave's Dictionary oY Political Economy, ed. H. I-tigris(3 vols.; London: Macmillan, 1925), I, 181. 2 An Inquiry Into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (4th ed.; London: J. Darby, 1738), p. 181. * Hal6vy, p. 21. [315] 316 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY was far more difficult for any moralist of Bentham's time to have overlooked the various formulations of the greatest happiness principle than to have become acquainted with it." ( Bentham, in later years, claimed to have first come across the phrase in Priestly. But this can probably be discounted--perhaps on grounds of poor memory--since Beccaria, whom Bentham considered his master, enunciated the principle before Priestly. In any case, the seeds of its conception and significance were already well planted when Bentham arrived on the scene. 5 Why then has the principle become so closely associated with Bentham? The answer is plain enough. No other individual has adhered to the principle so closely as Bentham, nor has any other individual made this principle such an important and central desideratum in all areas of analysis concerning the social relations of human beings. 6 Although Bentham usually characterized the principle in terms of the phrase, "the greatest happiness of the greatest number," he also referred to it in a somewhat different phrasing. As he remarks, "The right and proper end of government in every political community, is the greatest happiness of all individuals of which it is composed, say, in other words, the greatest happiness of the greatest number ." 7 It is difficult to know what to make of this passage since neither the phrase, "the greatest happiness of all," nor the phrase, "'the greatest happiness of the greatest number," is clear enough to permit us to say whether they are identical or not in meaning. This ditficulty, however, is alleviated by a consideration which appears to indicate that rather than treating the phrases in question as substitutes for one another, the latter phrase is to replace the former as the guiding principle for deciding policy. As Bentham observes: If such were the conditions of human...