{"agent_id":"paley","agent_name":"William Paley","slug":"theological-utilitarianism","label":"Theological utilitarianism: is morality the will of God collected from expediency, and does the appeal to everlasting happiness make virtue merely prudent?","topic":"Theological utilitarianism","question":"Is morality the will of God collected from expediency, and does the appeal to everlasting happiness make virtue merely prudent?","position":"Virtue is the doing good to mankind, in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness. Where scripture is silent the will of God is collected from the tendency of actions to promote general happiness. Actions are judged by the general consequences of the rule, not the particular consequences of the act.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"Virtue is the doing good to mankind, in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness.","n":[]},{"t":"Where scripture is silent the will of God is collected from the tendency of actions to promote general happiness.","n":[]},{"t":"Actions are judged by the general consequences of the rule, not the particular consequences of the act.","n":[1,2,3]}]],"texts":"*The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy* (1785), Book I chs. 5-7 (the moral sense denied, happiness, virtue defined), Book II chs. 1-9 (obligation, the will of God, expediency, general consequences). Reception: Bentham's acknowledgement and rejection of the theological sanction; Mill in *Utilitarianism*; Sidgwick's *Methods of Ethics* on Paley as the transitional figure; Whewell's attack; Niall O'Flaherty's *Utilitarianism in the Age of Enlightenment* (2019).","works":["*The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy* (1785), Book I chs. 5-7 (the moral sense denied, happiness, virtue defined), Book II chs. 1-9 (obligation, the will of God, expediency, general consequences)"],"reception":"Bentham's acknowledgement and rejection of the theological sanction; Mill in *Utilitarianism*; Sidgwick's *Methods of Ethics* on Paley as the transitional figure; Whewell's attack; Niall O'Flaherty's *Utilitarianism in the Age of Enlightenment* (2019).","status":"Read for fifty years as the standard English moral philosophy, then displaced by a secular utilitarianism that kept the method and discarded the sanction.","era":"1743-1805","discipline":"Philosophy, Theology","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Fourth, Happiness consists in health;) By health I understand, as well freedom from bodi* / hf distempers, as that tranquillity, fineness* and alac ' rity of mind, which we call good spirits; and which ihay properly enough be included in our notion of health, as depending commonly upon the same causes, and yielding to the same management, as our bodily constitution* Health, in this sedse, is the one thing heedfuL…","label":"The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy"},{"n":2,"work":"The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Second i That vice has no advantage over virtue, even with respect to this world's happiness. G zed\"by ^®ogk •m Ftrtue, CHAFFER VH. VIRTUE.","label":"The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy"},{"n":3,"work":"A View of the Evidences of Christianity","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"And the foundation of my opinion is this, that the qualities of actions depend entirely upon their effects, which effects must all along have been the subject of human experience. When it is once settled, no matter upon what principle, that to do good is virtue, the rest is calculation.","label":"A View of the Evidences of Christianity"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-design-argument","label":"The design argument: does the contrivance visible in organisms establish an intelligent designer, and does natural selection destroy the inference?"},{"slug":"miracles-and-testimony","label":"Miracles and testimony: can human witness establish a miracle against Hume's rule, and does the apostles' suffering count as evidence?"},{"slug":"the-state-of-the-poor","label":"The state of the poor: was Reasons for Contentment an argument, or a sermon addressed to the labouring poor on behalf of those who profited from their contentment?"}]}