Time for a little more John Stuart Mills. The 3rd chapter of Utilitarianism is entitled “Of the Ultimate Sanction of the Principle of Utility.” I understand this to mean, “From where does the utilitarian principle derive its authority?” I admit to not really understanding Mills’ argument in this chapter. His basic point seems to be that any moral framework takes on a sense of authority when we are raised in it, and that the best sign of the authority of the utilitarian principle is that people who have some sense of unity with the whole – of care for the utility of others – deem it to be a worthwhile capacity.
The potential moral faculty
Mills makes an observation that we take the morals we have been raised in as though they were a part of our nature. So whatever moral principles we have been brought up with seem to take on the weight of brute facts – when in fact they are mutable. Mills imagines a future when “the feeling of unity with our fellow creatures shall be…as deeply rooted in our character, and to our own consciousness as completely a part of our nature, as the horror of crime is” to most people.
Having made this observation, he then proposes that the utilitarian principle requires no more or less proof than any other moral principle, and goes on to discuss both external and internal sanction. External sanction being the “hope of favour and the fear of displeasure from our fellow creatures or from the Ruler of the Universe.” As regards internal sanction, Mills discusses duty, and observes that “the ultimate [internal] sanction…of all morality… [is] a subjective feeling in our minds.” The idea that our thoughts about the world lie at the center of our moral principles is compelling. As we generate knowledge, as our consciousness about the world is raised, this changes our morality.
Utilitarianism and the advancement of civilization
Mills does believe that the utilitarian principle has a ‘natural’ basis. He locates this natural sentiment in the “social feelings of mankind; the desire to be in unity with our fellow creatures.” He refers to it as strengthened by and contingent upon the continued advancement of society.
“In an improving state of the human mind, the influences are constantly on the increase, which tend to generate in each individual a feeling of unity with all the rest; which feeling, if perfect, would make him never think of, or desire, any beneficial condition for himself, in the benefits to which they are not included. If we now suppose this feeling of unity to be taught as a religion, and the whole force of education, of institutions, and of opinion, directed, as it once was in the case of religion, to make every person grow up from infancy surrounded on all sides both by the profession and by the practice of it, I think that no one, who can realize this conception, will feel any misgiving about the sufficiency of the ultimate sanction of the Happiness morality.”
“He comes, as though instinctively, to be conscious of himself as a being who of course pays regard to others. The good of others becomes to him a thing naturally and necessarily to be attended to, like any of the physical conditions of our existence.”
A note on capacity
In examining from where the utilitarian principle derives its authority, Mills talks about “the moral faculty” in terms of human capacity. We are not born displaying the moral faculty, but we have the capacity to develop a sense of ourselves as part of the whole – a sense of caring about the well-being of others. Mills discusses other “acquired faculties” such as speech, reason, farming and the building of cities. All acquired faculties are “susceptible of being brought by cultivation to a high degree of development. Unhappily it is also susceptible, by a sufficient use of the external sanctions and of the force of early impressions, of being cultivated in almost any direction.”
Reflection
The topic of sanction or the authority of a moral framework is a compelling idea. In the Baha’i Faith, something is true – something derives its binding force – because the Manifestation of God is writing the world anew through His pen. Reality is literally reshaped by the Word of God. So that’s why unity is important, why justice is important within that framework.
It seems, in part, that Mills addressed the sanction of the utilitarian principle precisely because he felt a need to defend the framework against criticism. What does it mean to discuss sanction in today’s work? The very idea of authority is looked at with mistrust in post-modern thought. As our book group continues studying Revelation and Social Reality, that book may offer some useful ways forward.
