第83章 BENTHAM'S DOCTRINE(5)

Here,therefore,we have the ground of the doctrine already noticed.'Pains and pleasures'are real.(30)'Their existence,'he says,(31)'is matter of universal and constant experience.'But other various names referring to these:emotion,inclination,vice,virtue,etc.are only 'psychological entities.''Take away pleasures and pains,not only happiness but justice and duty and obligation and virtue --all of which have been so elaborately held up to view as independent of them --are so many empty sounds.'(32)The ultimate facts,then,are pains and pleasures.They are the substantives of which these other words are properly the adjectives.A pain or a pleasure may exist by itself,that is without being virtuous or vicious:but virtue and vice can only exist in so far as pain and pleasure exists.

This analysis of 'obligation'is a characteristic doctrine of the Utilitarian school.We are under an 'obligation'so far as we are affected by a 'sanction.'

It appeared to Bentham so obvious as to need no demonstration,only an exposition of the emptiness of any verbal contradiction.Such metaphysical basis as he needed is simply the attempt to express the corresponding conception of reality which,in his opinion,only requires to be expressed to carry conviction.

II.SPRINGS OF ACTION

Our path is now clear.Pains and pleasures give us what mathematicians call the 'independent variable.'Our units are (in Bentham's phrase)'lots'of pain or pleasure.We have to interpret all the facts in terms of pain or pleasure,and we shall have the materials for what has since been called a 'felicific calculus.'To construct this with a view to legislation is his immediate purpose.The theory will fall into two parts:the 'pathological,'or an account of all the pains and pleasures which are the primary data;and the 'dynamical,'or an account of the various modes of conduct determined by expectations of pain and pleasure.This gives the theory of 'springs of action,'considered in themselves,and of 'motives,'that is,of the springs as influencing conduct.(33)The 'pathology'contains,in the first place,a discussion of the measure of pain and pleasure in general;secondly,a discussion of the various species of pain and pleasure;and thirdly,a discussion of the varying sensibilities of different individuals to pain and pleasure.(34)Thus under the first head,we are told that the value of a pleasure,considered by itself,depends upon its intensity,duration,certainty,and propinquity;and,considered with regard to modes of obtaining it,upon its fecundity (or tendency to produce other pains and pleasures)and its purity (or freedom from admixture of other pains and pleasures).The pain or pleasure is thus regarded as an entity which is capable of being in some sense weighed and measured.(35)The next step is to classify pains and pleasures,which though commensurable as psychological forces,have obviously very different qualities.

Bentham gives the result of his classification without the analysis upon which it depends.He assures us that he has obtained an 'exhaustive'list of 'simple pleasures.'It must be confessed that the list does not commend itself either as exhaustive or as composed of 'simple pleasures.'He does not explain the principle of his analysis because he says,it was of 'too metaphysical a cast,'(36)but he thought it so important that he published it,edited with considerable modifications by James Mill,in 1817,as a Table of the Springs of Action.(37)J.S.Mill remarks that this table should be studied by any one who would understand Bentham's philosophy.Such a study would suggest some unfavourable conclusions.Bentham seems to have made out his table without the slightest reference to any previous psychologist.It is simply constructed to meet the requirements of his legislative theories.As psychology it would be clearly absurd,especially if taken as giving the elementary or 'simple'feelings.

No one can suppose,for example,that the pleasures of 'wealth'or 'power'are 'simple'pleasures.The classes therefore are not really distinct,and they are as far from being exhaustive.All that can be said for the list is that it gives a sufficiently long enumeration to call attention from his own point of view to most of the ordinary pleasures and pains;and contains.As much psychology as he could really turn to account for his purpose.