功利主义--边沁之前

Utilitarianism-Before Bentham

本文考察了近代早期英国以及法国的功利主义历史。在英国,理查德·坎伯兰、约翰·洛克、乔治·贝克莱、弗兰西斯·哈奇森以及大卫·休谟等人推动了功利主义的发展。坎伯兰可以看作第一个用功利主义的视角来看待自然法的人,洛克对利己主义和享乐主义观点进行了辩护,并令随后的功利主义者大都追随的哲学道路拥有了合法性,哈奇森和休谟为后来世俗化的功利主义的发展提供了概念上的支持。以约翰·盖伊和乔治·贝克莱为代表的英国国教功利主义也为功利主义的发展做出了贡献。在法国,克拉克·爱尔维修既提出一个彻底自然主义的功利主义理论,又提出了一种将功利主义作为改革工具的模式。本文不赞同将英国国教功利主义和世俗功利主义理论看作两种不同的发展历史的观点,因为这两种理论都承认道德的重要性,并对一些哲学思想和论述有共同认可,所以应该把它们看作一段共同史。

This paper examines the history of utilitarianism in early modern Britain and France.In Britain,the development of utilitarianism was promoted by Richard Cumberland,John Locke,George Berkeley,Francis Hutcheson and David Hume.Cumberland can be seen as the first to put a utilitarian view in natural law garb.Locke defended various egoistic and hedonism theses and legitimized the philosophical path that utilitarians would largely follow.Hutcheson and Hume provided some conceptual support for the later development of secular forms of utilitarianism.Anglican utilitarianism represented by John gay and George Berkeley also contributed to the development of utilitarianism.In France,Claude Helvetius presented both a thoroughly naturalistic utilitarian theory and a model for utilitarianism as an instrument of reform.The author disagree with the idea that Anglican and secular utilitarian theories have their own different development in history.Since both theories share both their recognition of the significance of morality,and their commitment to various philosophical theses and arguments,they should be considered to have a shared history.