Utilitarianism, Liberty, Representative Government: Selections from Auguste Comte and Positivism

Mill, John Stuart, Jeremy Bentham, and John Austin

ISBN 10: 0460114824 / ISBN 13: 9780460114820

Edité par J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1977

A propos de cet article

Paperback; edited by H.B. Acton; fading, light soiling, and edge wear to exterior; wrinkling to spine; fading to pages, and soiling to page edges and end pages; otherwise in acceptable condition with clean text and tight binding.

N° de réf. du vendeur 73788

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Utilitarianism, Liberty, Representative Government: Selections from Auguste Comte and Positivism
• Éditeur: J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd.
• Date de parution: 1977
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0460114824
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780460114820
• Reliure: Paperback
• État de l'article: UsedAcceptable

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Book by John Stuart Mill

Présentation de l'éditeur

The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure. To give a clear view of the moral standard set up by the theory, much more requires to be said; in particular, what things it includes in the ideas of pain and pleasure; and to what extent this is left an open question. But these supplementary explanations do not affect the theory of life on which this theory of morality is grounded-namely, that pleasure, and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends; and that all desirable things (which are as numerous in the utilitarian as in any other scheme) are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain. Now, such a theory of life excites in many minds, and among them in some of the most estimable in feeling and purpose, inveterate dislike. To suppose that life has (as they express it) no higher end than pleasure-no better and nobler object of desire and pursuit-they designate as utterly mean and grovelling; as a doctrine worthy only of swine, to whom the followers of Epicurus were, at a very early period, contemptuously likened; and modern holders of the doctrine are occasionally made the subject of equally polite comparisons by its German, French, and English assailants.