JB/014/309/009

Click Here To Edit

In & by means of the locution or phrase
principle of utility, the significatn. of the word utility with
its conjugates, as the logicians say, Utilitarian and Utilitarianism,
has on this occasion amongst others attracted
so much of public attentn. and become an object of
such importance that a short history of its adventures, so
to speak, may perhaps be not altogether unacceptable
to our readers.

The first work in whh. it ever made its appearce.
in the character of a subject of discussn. was the
work entitled "Essays, by David Hume;" date of the first
editn., as far as recollection serves, the year 1742 or
thereabouts. In that work it is spoken of as the name
of a principle whh. might be considered as the foundation
or corner-stone of one of the systems of morals at that
time known and embraced by a philosophical sect
the moral sense being the denominatn. being of a different system and that
in truth a very widely different one. In that work
of Dav. Hume's the idea attachd to it was altogether
vague: the general idea not being followed up &
by the means of any particular ideas exhibited as
representative of so many species contained in the
genus so denominated liquidated as it were and
applied to practical use.

Not long before or after this time came out in
French the then & still so highly celebrated work of
Helvetius entitled "Sur l'esprit". In this work a commencement
was made of the application of the principle
of utility to practical use:- to the direction
of human conduct, in the ordinary course of life: a
connection was formed between the idea attached to ye.
word happiness and again between the idea attached to
ye word happiness & the ideas respectively attached to
the words pleasure & pain. To several pleasures whh.
as yet had been without "a local habitation & a name"
both those appendages were now & thus attributed: attached
to the words utility & principle of utility were now ideas in abundance-
ideas which could not but be continually present & familiar to the
most inattentive, unobsert & scantily-instructed minds.

Mean time

Identifier: | JB/014/309/009 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 14.
Date_1	1829-12-03	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	014	Main Headings	deontology
Folio number	309	Info in main headings field	deontology private
Image	009	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e2
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	5072
Box Contents