From: David Parker (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Date: Mon Mar 01 1999 - 06:01:16 PST
My dear Sir, Utilitarianism was a complex doctrine. At its heart lay the contention that we should act always in the hope of achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number. As often as not this was a admirable moral rule of thumb. The problem was at the margins - the kind of iniquities it could be used to justify. Sometimes it was used to justify a brutal emphasis on the practical and useful, at the expense of the imaginative and the delightful. Sometimes it was used to justify harsh cruelty to a minority - often a very big minority - on the grounds that the majority was still made happier. Its effects in the fields of education and political economy were pernicious, and roused me to fierce indignation. That is what I tried to show in my book "Hard Times." Faithfully yours, Charles Dickens ____________________________________________________________________________ _________ -----Original Message----- From: supperbunny78@hotmail.com <supperbunny78@hotmail.com> To: cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK <cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK> Date: 12 December 1996 05:53 Subject: Re: Hard Times > >Dear Mr. Dickens, > I am sitting here revising my english as my mock exams >are starting tomorrow. I was reading over my "Hard Times" notes >and I am having a bit of difficulty understanding this whole idea >of utilitarianism and the philosophy behind it. It would be a great >help if you could explain this to me. Thanking you in advance. > Yours faithfully, > >