Word: utilitarianism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...contrast to Randall's obscure vaulting origins. Berle began vaulting this year because he wanted to compete in the decathalon and the pole vault is one of the events. Sophomore Spanos took the utilitarian rouse his freshman year of high school...
Divided into four long essays, the book searches for a new understanding of justice in modern society, especially in the context of economic life. Posner begins by discrediting the legacy of classical utilitarianism has bequethed philosophers. Posner believes that Bentham's call for the greatest happiness for the greatest number, a fashionably modern concept, actually opens the way for "moral monstrousness." Citing "the utilitarian's readiness to sacrifice the innocent individual on the altar of social need," Posner presents examples to illustrate the deficiency of any conception of happiness as the ultimate measure of right. Instead, the author suggests economic...
...difference between utilitarian and economic morality, and the source, I believe, of the 'monstrousness' of the former, is that the utilitarian, despite his professed concern with social welfare, must logically ascribe the value to all sorts of asocial traits, such as envy and cruelty, because these are common sources of personal satisfaction and hence of utlity. In contrast, lawfully obtained wealth is created by doing things for other people--offering them advantageous trades. The individual may be completely selfish but he cannot, in a well-regulated market economy, promote his self-interest without benefitting others as well as himself...
Lillian Menasche Katz, 54, started the $42 million Lillian Vernon Corp. in the back of her former husband's dress shop in Mount Vernon, N.Y., with an initial investment of $2,000. Her current offerings are utilitarian (a wall-mounted kitchen scale), frivolous (an initialed toothpaste tube squeezer) or elegant (a nickel-plated travel shaving brush...
...festive scenes he creates. Meyreles calls himself a "happy person" and believes he spreads those good feelings. "The nice thing is when people write letters saying. 'I was really down and out but I saw you and you just made my day," he says. But despite the utilitarian role which he attempts to play, Meyreles soberly considers a society where performances like his provide such bright moments...