Excerpt from Science and Social Progress: A Philosophical Introduction to Moral Science

Give us a guide, cry men to the philosopher.1 We would escape from these miseries in which we are entangled. A better state is ever present to our imaginations, and we yearn after it; but all our efforts to realize it are fruitless We are weary of perpetual failures; tell us by what rule we may attain our desire.

Have a little patience, returns the moralist, and I will give you my Opinion as to the mode of securing this greatest happiness to the greatest number.

There again, exclaim the objectors, you mistake our require ment. We want something else than opinions. We have had enough Of them. Every futile scheme for the general good has been based on opinion; and we have no guarantee that your plan will not add one to the list of failures. Have you discovered a means of forming an infallible judgment? If not, you are, for aught we know, as much in the dark as ourselves. True, you have Obtained a clearer view of the end to be arrived at; but concerning the route leading to it, your offer of an opinion proves that you know nothing more certain than we do. We demur to your maxim because it is not what we wanted - a guide because it dictates no sure mode of securing the desideratum because it puts no veto on a mistaken policy; because it permits all actions bad, as readily as good - provided only the actors believe them con ducive to the prescribed end. Your doctrines of 'expediency' or utility or 'general good or 'greatest happiness to the greatest num ber afford not a solitary command of a practical character. Let but rulers think, or profess to think, that their measures will benefit the community, and your philosophy stands mute in the presence of the most egregious folly, or the blackest misconduct. This will not do for us. We seek a system that can return a definite answer when we ask Is this act good?'

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