An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
Jeremy Bentham · 1789 CE
Excerpt
“the greatest happiness of the greatest number”
Why the atlas keeps it
Written largely between 1776 and 1780 and published in 1789, opening with a satirical catechism that asks whether any rule of utility could ever be used to justify anything at all. The phrase that outlived the book is the one in the title page: the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Terms this text reaches for
Ranked by the codex search index against the summary above, not hand-picked.
Golden rule
philosophyDo to others only what you would have done to yourself.
Categorical imperative
philosophyKant's test of an act's maxim by asking whether it could be a universal law.
Orthogonality hypothesis
alignmentThe claim that a system's capability and the goal it pursues are largely independent dimensions.
Symmetry
philosophyThe assumption that no being's interests matter more than another's merely as a matter of fact.
Reasonable rejectability
philosophyThe standard that a principle is unacceptable if someone could reasonably refuse to live under it.
Absurdism
philosophyThe confrontation between the demand for meaning and a universe that supplies none.