Francis Hutcheson’s early formulation of the principle of “the greatest Happiness for the greatest Numbers” (1726)

One normally associates the principle of “the greatest happiness of the greatest number” with the 19th century utilitarian philosophers Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and John Stuart Mill. Here we have a much earlier formulation by Hutcheson from the 1720s. He was an important figure in the development of the Scottish Enlightenment since, as professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow to which he was appointed in 1729, he was able to influence an entire generation of students including Adam Smith (1738-39). According to Hutcheson, every person has an innate “moral sense of virtue” which guides them in making oral choices. When faced with having to choose between alternative courses of action (or what Hutcheson calls “regulating our Election among various Actions”) we have to “compute” which action will lead to the highest virtue which “is in proportion to the Number of Persons to whom the Happiness shall extend.” Interestingly, Hutcheson concludes this passage with the application of his “moral computing” to evaluating the virtue of obeying government laws and regulations and asks what one should do “if in some very important Instances, the Violation of the Law would be of less evil Consequence than Obedience to it?”