Moral philosophy Author:Andrew Preston Peabody Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE III. UTILITARIANISM AND EXPEDIENCY. I Propose to-day to discuss the several forms of utilitarianism, and the ethical position which rightfully belo... more »ngs to expediency or utility. There might seem at first thought a wide distinction between the merely selfish and the more broadly utilitarian theory,—between that which makes one's interest, pleasure, or happiness his sole standard of right, and that which assumes for its standard the greatest happiness of the greatest number; but'we shall find that they rest on the same foundation, — that the utilitarian regards general beneficence as the dictate and the outcome of an enlightened self-love. We will consider, first, the purely selfish theory. According to this, the desire of pleasure, of happiness, of well-being, is inherent in and inseparable from human nature, and must lie at the basis of every volition. Will is but desire made active, and desire implies a conception of something by which one's pleasure or happiness may be increased. A desire which means less or other than this is inconceivable. If I am seemingly beneficent to my own injury, it is because I expect greater pleasure from the exercise of sympathy, or from the gratitude of the person benefited, or from a reputation for generosity, than I lose by denying myself what I bestow. If I die for the True and the Right, it is because I anticipate in heaven a recompense far exceeding the earthly good that I shall forego. Disinterested action is utterly im possible ; for one cannot cease to be his own well, wisher, still less can he be his own ill-wisher, which he must be if he willingly diminishes his own sum of happiness or well-being. What, then, is virtue, according to this theory ? It is simply prudence,—a clear-seeing, deep-seeing, judicious self-interest, — ...« less