Social Philosophy

This chapter's main focus was the differences between capitalism and socialism. Some observations follow.

Jeremy Bentham takes the utilitarian theory even further to say that the ONLY good is pleasure and the ONLY evil is pain. This idea leaves no room for the type of pain that brings pleasure. This idea goes on to say that if we each concern ourselves with our own pleasures, then injustice and inequality will finally disappear. And that it’s the false belief that we have no right to satisfy our desires that inhibits people and brings about the class distinction.

Liberal democracy = psychological theory of individual motivation + moral theory of the good + educational theory of enlightenment.

Unlike Bentham who said that the only thing that matters is the quantity of pleasures, Mill asserted that the quality of pleasures is also important.

Socialism is a topic that runs rampant in the States these days. Wolff makes an interesting distinction between original socialist thought to that of Marx. Socialism’s slogan would have been “From each according to his ability; to each according to his work”, but Marx turned it into “From each according to his ability; to each according to his need.” So close, yet so far away!

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