JB/010/129/002

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to it: that is to say in English. What should hinder Principe du plus grand bonheur
from succeeding is it in French. Think of the Principe de moindre action - There you
have match for it. Was it not one of Leibnitz's? What could I do? When I came out with the
in or was in the fragment, I took it from Hume's Essays. Hume was in all his glory,
the phrase was consequently familiar to everybody. The difference between Hume & me
is this, the use he made of it, was - to account for that which is, I to show what ought to be.
After that, Paley without noticing me use it, in the sense I used it in. What I should have
done was — taking up Priestly's phrase: the greatest happiness of the greatest number;&
speaking of it under the denomination of a principle, but, the place I found it in was the
tail of a small pamphlet which was very little read, & neither by him nor any one else
had any application been ever made of it. Happiness is much nearer the mark than utility,
there may be a utility which stops short of the only materials of happiness, viz pleasures &
exemptions from pains, in such sort as to have no reference to it. Utility without being
misapplied may even have no other reference than to a bad purpose: use the term
happiness, & it will not be very easy to a man to avoid having in his view the ideas of
pleasures & exemptions from pains. Principe de Bienveillance. No: that will never do,
it is very short of being adequate. In the idea meant to be designated by the greatest principles of
happiness, extent & proportion — extent as expressed by number are essential ingredients:
the principles of the greatest happiness of the greatest number, of the members of the Community
in question, expresses the matter in fall. Principle of the greatest happiness gives tolerably
adequate intuition of it. For placing the matter in the mind in the first instance, no:
but for calling it up after it has been plead yes. Of no extent, of no proportion, of no
comparison, does the Principe de Bienveillance present the idea. An act by which
the happiness of a hundred millions is sacrificed to one, may come under it, as well as
the reverse. Moreover there may be benevolence in any quantity, without an atom
of beneficence, as also beneficence in any quantity, without an atom of benevolence.
Sanctions

Identifier: | JB/010/129/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 10.
Date_1	1822-09-06	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	010	Main Headings
Folio number	129	Info in main headings field	jb qsp to dumont aux philosophes pres geneve copy
Image	002	Titles
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	3
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner	richard doane	Watermarks	g & r turner
Marginals		Paper Producer	edward wakefield
Corrections	jeremy bentham	Paper Produced in Year
Notes public	copy of letter 2918, vol. 11	ID Number	3565
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