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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
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