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Essay on Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism embodies rationalism that, to enlightened minds, seems admirably fitted to sweep away moribund ideas and the profitless practices they sustained. It gives hope to those who believe in the perfectibility of man and the possibility (under suitable arrangements) of true human happiness on earth. Utilitarian ideas appeal also for their secular, this-worldly character, their unindebtedness to Jerusalem, Rome or Geneva. They answer to the philosophers’ demand for a non-religious, rational morality that treats human beings as ends in themselves and their lives as valuable irrespective of their place in a divine plan. Moreover utilitarians ascribe to all human beings an equal moral status, regardless of race, sex, age or class. Utilitarian moral thought is ‘enlightened’ in the sense that utilitarians refuse to be guided by authority, and insist on working out their own positions from first principles.
Further, it has a philosophy which offers what seems to be a clear-cut and highly practical recipe for political action: governments should first of all find out what makes people happy, then devise appropriate social strategies to bring that happiness about. In utilitarianism there remains good hope for the future: the mistakes of the past, once understood, can be avoided, while the developments in industrial and agricultural technology promise to alleviate the terrible drudgery of the poor. Knowledge and liberty are the twin routes to social improvement and will assuredly lead in time to the acquisition of the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Utilitarians believe that through carefully managed education individuals can be molded into cooperative citizens of communities enjoying a high level of general happiness. The work of the legislator is itself a species of education. It is solely through good laws that one can form good men. Thus the whole art of the legislator consists of forcing men, by the sentiment of self-love, to be always just to one another.................
