The Greatest Happiness and the Dialectic: A Narrative Review of Utilitarianism and Marxist Materialism, from Bentham's Calculus to Cohen's Defence

Abstract

The nineteenth century's two great secular moralities—utilitarianism's greatest happiness of the greatest number and Marxism's dialectical materialism—share a character: both made morality a matter of the world's conditions rather than its commandments, one by a calculus of welfare, the other by a theory of history. This article presents a narrative review of the primary literature of both traditions, from Bentham's 1789 Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation and Mill's 1859 On Liberty and 1863 Utilitarianism, through the Manifesto of 1848, Marx's 1859 preface on base and superstructure, his 1867 Capital, and Engels's 1878 Anti-Dühring, Sidgwick's 1874 Methods of Ethics and Moore's 1903 Principia Ethica, which disciplined and attacked the utilitarian naturalism, Rawls's 1971 A Theory of Justice, whose critique made utilitarianism the reference position, Smart and Williams's 1973 debate, and Cohen's 1978 defence of Marx's theory of history. The synthesis is organized around three themes: the utilitarian settlement, in which the calculus of pleasure was stated, refined, and liberty-protected; the materialist settlement, in which history's motor was located in production's relations and its dialectic; and the twentieth century's audit, in which Moore's naturalism, Rawls's critique, and Cohen's analytic reconstruction fixed both traditions' modern standing. It is concluded that the two literatures, opposed in method, agree in their ambition—morality and politics answerable to the world—and that their modern forms are the audit's products.