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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:19:13 2006 |
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====================== HES POSTING ==================
In Mill's Autobiography, there is a brief discussion of the
manner in which the term "utilitarian" made its way into the
language. In Chapter III, Mill notes
"It was in the winter of 1822-23 that I formed the plan of a little
society, to be composed of young men agreeing in fundemental
principles -- acknowledging utilty as their standard in ethics and
politics, and a certain number of the principal corrollaries drawn
from it in the philosophy I had accepted -- and meeting once a
fortnight to read essays and discuss questions conformably to the
premises thus agreed upon. The fact would hardly be worth mentioning,
but for the circumstances, that the name I gave to the society I had
planned was the Utilitarian Society. It was the first time that any
one had taken the title of Utilitarian; and the term made its way
into the language, from this humble source. I did not invent the
word, but found it in one of Galt's novels, the Annals of the Parish,
in which the Scotch clergymen, of whom the book is supposed to be an
autobiography, is represented as warning his parishioners not to
leave the Gospel and become utilitarian."
I hope this passage adds a bit to the current discussion.
Steven W. Nape
Assistant Professor
Division of Business and Social Sciences
Gordon College
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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