The Greatest Beauty for the Greatest Number
The Greatest Beauty for the Greatest Number
This chapter introduces Henry Cole, who was heavily influenced by the ideas of the philosopher Jeremy Bentham and became the conduit for utilitarianism into the Royal Society of Arts. It analyzes Bentham's proposed alternative that based everything on a fundamental guiding principle of achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. It also mentions utilitarian reformers inspired by Bentham that introduced improvements for the benefit of “the masses” or the “people.” The chapter talks about Rowland Hill, a utilitarian reformer who tried to create a national prepaid postage system. It examines Hill's scheme to replace the messy postal system that favoured only the rich and powerful by promoting a flat rate so that any letter weighing under an ounce might be sent to anywhere in the country for just a penny.
Keywords: Henry Cole, Jeremy Bentham, utilitarianism, Royal Society of Arts, utilitarian reformers, Rowland Hill, national prepaid postage system
Princeton Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
