Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Victorian
England
Utilitarianism
Brainchild of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
greatest good for the greatest number (the
greatest happiness principle)
Adherents:
Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890)
Urban health
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Political Economist and
Social Theory; On Liberty (1859)
Diffused throughout Europe from GB
Mills Utilitarianism
The subject of this Essay is not the so-called
Liberty of the Will, so unfortunately opposed to
the misnamed doctrine of Philosophical Necessity;
but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of
the power which can be legitimately exercised by
society over the individual.
"That the only purpose for which power can be
rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized
community, against his will, is to prevent harm to
others. His own good, either physical or moral, is
not a sufficient warrant....Over himself, over his
body and mind, the individual is sovereign."
Social Darwinism
Darwins ideas taken to an
extreme:
Herbert Spencer:
1. English Sociologist and
Philosopher
2. Applied (and coined the
term) Survival of the
fittest to mans quest
against other men.
3. Leads to idea of racial