philosophy · 1780 – 1789
The Greatest Happiness
Bentham writes An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation in 1780 and publishes it in 1789, opening with a satirical catechism on whether a rule of utility can ever be used to justify anything at all; meanwhile Kant writes the Groundwork in 1785. Two incompatible foundations land within a decade: a calculus of consequences and a categorical command, both of which still structure alignment arguments.
“the greatest happiness of the greatest number”
Advances
- A single principle of evaluation — utility — offered as the ground of all obligation
- The commensurability of pleasures, established by an interpersonal test
- Kant's ground of obligation, which is the act's maxim and not any consequence of it
Landmarks
1780 CE
The Introduction drafted
Bentham wrote it largely between 1776 and 1780; the prefatory satire dates the readiness to publish.
1785 CE
Kant's Groundwork
One maxim, three formulations: universal law, humanity as end, and the kingdom of ends.
1789 CE
Publication, and the French Revolution
Bentham's book appears in June; the Bastille falls in July.
Who was arguing
Alignment stack at 1789 CE (0 of 20 techniques)
Techniques introduced in this era: