Negative utilitarianism

Smart

pp. 35-46

in: Fred D'agostino, I. C. Jarvie (eds), Freedom and rationality, Berlin, Springer, 1989

Abstract

One of John Watkins's many notable contributions to philosophy is his paper "Negative Utilitarianism", which is the second part of a symposium of that title, the other symposiast being H.B. Action.¹ Both symposiasts consider and reject a form of utilitarianism that had been extracted by my brother Ninian Smart from some remarks in Popper's Open Society and Its Enemies.² However the interpretative principle of charity should prevent us from interpreting Popper as a negative utilitarian in my brother's sense: as my brother indeed remarks, if Popper did have the negative utilitarian principle as a fundamental axiom of his ethics, he also had at least two other principles as well. Certainly if Popper had been a negative utilitarian at all he would have been a singularly muddle headed one.

Cited authors

Popper Karl

Watkins John