Quotation
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“The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.”
Jeremy Bentham · Utilitarianism · Enlightenment · 1776–1789
What does it mean?
Laws and morals, on his banner, are to be judged by the happiness they produce, counting persons and aiming at the greatest spread of it, with pain and pleasure as the measures. The usual reading treats the formula as the principle of utility in memorable dress. A rival reading ignores the history: Francis Hutcheson had already written of the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers, and Bentham's own 1789 opening is more precise about whose interest is in question. The famous sentence is a fair banner over that principle, not his only wording.
Did Jeremy Bentham really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Bentham adopts and repeats this formula. Francis Hutcheson had already written, in 1725, of the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. Bentham's 1789 opening says the principle of utility approves or disapproves according to the tendency to augment or diminish happiness. The famous sentence is a fair banner, not his only wording.
Where it comes from
A common statement of Bentham's principle; compare A Fragment on Government (1776) and the opening of An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789)
Approximate date: 1776–1789.
How to use it
When a rule is defended at a tenants' meeting in Hackney, say whose happiness it increases and whose it costs, in pounds of time, money, or risk, before the formula is borrowed as a glow. If those people cannot be named, the test is not yet in use, whatever words are on the slide. The principle can condemn a popular rule and bless an unpopular one; Popularity is not the count.
A mindset reading
A principle can be shared with someone who said a close version earlier, and giving Hutcheson his due does not make Bentham a cheap plagiarist. It makes the history accurate, and it leaves Bentham as the writer who tried to turn the formula into a legislative method. Using the sentence as if nobody had thought about aggregate happiness before 1789 teaches a false origin story.
Understand the philosophy
Bentham wants a calculus: intensity, duration, certainty, nearness, fecundity, purity, and extent. The key term is utility, the tendency of an action or a law to augment or diminish happiness. Mill will later complain that a single measure flattens higher pleasures, and he will revise utilitarianism rather than leave it. The famous formula is a banner; The 1789 opening is the more careful statement of the principle.
- ethics
- justice
- happiness
FAQ
What does it mean?
Laws and morals, on his banner, are to be judged by the happiness they produce, counting persons and aiming at the greatest spread of it, with pain and pleasure as the measures. The usual reading treats the formula as the principle of utility in memorable dress. A rival reading ignores the history: Francis Hutcheson had already written of the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers, and Bentham's own 1789 opening is more precise about whose interest is in question. The famous sentence is a fair banner over that principle, not his only wording.
Did Jeremy Bentham really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Bentham adopts and repeats this formula. Francis Hutcheson had already written, in 1725, of the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. Bentham's 1789 opening says the principle of utility approves or disapproves according to the tendency to augment or diminish happiness. The famous sentence is a fair banner, not his only wording.
Which work is it in?
A common statement of Bentham's principle; compare A Fragment on Government (1776) and the opening of An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789) Approximate date: 1776–1789.