The Greatest Happiness Principle*: T. L. S. Sprigge

Utilitas 3 (1):37-51 (1991)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

My purpose in what follows is not so much to defend the basic principle of utilitarianism as to indicate the form of it which seems most promising as a basic moral and political position. I shall take the principle of utility as offering a criterion for two different sorts of evaluation: first, the merits of acts of government, social policies, and social institutions, and secondly, the ultimate moral evaluation of the actions of individuals. I do not take it as implying that the individual should live his life on the basis of constant evaluations of this sort. For there are different levels of decision making each with its appropriate criteria. For example, we each inevitably make many of our decisions from the point of view of our own personal self-fulfilment and this cannot regularly take a directly utilitarian form, nor should the utilitarian want it to do so. His claim is at most that we should sometimes review our life from the point of view of a kind of impersonal moral truth of a universalistic utilitarian character.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 79,826

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

A non-utilitarian approach to punishment.H. J. McCloskey - 1965 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 8 (1-4):249 – 263.
Mill's Harm Principle as Social Justice.Huodong Li - 2004 - Dissertation, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
"Utility".John Broome - 1991 - Economics and Philosophy 7 (1):1-12.
Utilitarianism.Joon Ho Kang - 2008 - Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 10:221-228.
A utilitarian reply to dr. McCloskey.T. L. S. Sprigge - 1965 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 8 (1-4):264 – 291.
Kant on Happiness in the Moral Life.Gary Watson - 1983 - Philosophy Research Archives 9:79-108.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-08-30

Downloads
142 (#96,560)

6 months
2 (#320,057)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Happiness.Dan Haybron - forthcoming - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Happiness and pleasure.Daniel M. Haybron - 2001 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 62 (3):501-528.
On being happy or unhappy.Daniel M. Haybron - 2005 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 71 (2):287–317.
Six theses about pleasure.Stuart Rachels - 2004 - Philosophical Perspectives 18 (1):247-267.

View all 8 citations / Add more citations