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Utilitarianism: the Classical Principle and the Average Principle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

R. I. Sikora
R. I. Sikora*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
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Extract

Act Utilitarianism has traditionally been regarded as the view that you should always perform the action that will bring about the greatest possible excess of happiness over unhappiness or, if there is no such alternative, the least possible excess of unhappiness over happiness.1 Following Rawls, I shall call this the classical principle. An alternative which Rawls calls the average principle is the view that you should always do the thing that will bring about the highest possible average happiness level. Rawls, Rescher and Broad2 regard the average principle as superior to the classical principle, and there are considerable grounds for supposing that Mill accepted the average principle.3 Smart favours the classical position but confesses that if someone doesn't feel the same way, he doesn't know how to argue with him.4

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , November 1975 , pp. 409 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1975

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References

1 I am indebted in this paper, as is often the case, to D.G. Brown. The paper has also benefited by comments and criticism from William Anglin.

2 Rawls, John A Theory of Justice (Harvard University Press, 1971), p. 162ffGoogle Scholar; Rescher, Nicholas Distributive justice (The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1966), p. 27ffGoogle Scholar; Broad, C.D. five Types of Ethical Theory (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1930), p. 250.Google Scholar

3 Cf. Myrdal, Gunnar The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory, trans. Streeten, Paul (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1953), p. 38.Google Scholar

4 Smart, J.J.C. and Williams, Bernard Utilitarianism for and Against (Cambridge University Press, 1973), p. 28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 “And Now It's the Animal Lib Movement,” The National Observer, April 28, 1973.

6 In “A Utilitarian Population Policy” to appear in the forthcoming Ethics & Population, edited by Michael Bayles and published by Shenkman. The quotation that follows is from this paper, of which he has kindly sent me a copy.

7 In “Sidgwick and Reflective Equilibrium,” The Monist, July 1974.