===================== HES POSTING ==================== Dear all: Thank you all for your interesting and stimulating discussion and suggestions. Most of the discussion focused on economic thought of Smith and his contemporaries, no mention was made to Bentham. Still, in his article on "utility" in Economics & Philosophy (1991) John Broome >starts< with Bentham. Would it be correct to say that Bentham turned utility into a technical term? But then it seems strange that he starts talking about it right at page 2 of his Principles. As if utility as a technical term was already well founded in 1823 when his book was published. Does anyone have an explanation for this? My query is >also< to investigate if in the different uses that are made of the term utility, there is a gender bias (this is for a joint project with my friend Hella Hoppe). In Bentham this is clear when he talks of utility being felt differently by the insane, children and women. They thus need to be put under guardianship. For a subjectivist like Bentham, doesn't this seem funny? Anyway, thank you all again for you replies to my query Best wishes, Wilfred Dolfsma Erasmus University, Rotterdam ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]