边沁论效用原理

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1、边沁，道德与立法原理导论Chapter IOF THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITYI. Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the othe

2、r the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. In words a man may pretend to abjure their empire: but in reality he will

3、remain subject to it all the while. The principle of utility http:/www.econlib.org/library/Bentham/bnthPML1.html.6 recognizes this subjection, and assumes it for the foundation of that system, the object of which is to rear the fabric of felicity by the hands of reason and of law. Systems which atte

4、mpt to question it, deal in sounds instead of sense, in caprice instead of reason, in darkness instead of light.I.自然把人类置于两位主人的统治之下，这 两位主人是快乐和痛苦。唯有它们指出我们 应该做什么，并决定我们将要做什么。是非 标准和因果关系都由它们决定。我们所做、 所说和所思都由它们支配：每一次试图挣脱 它们的统治，都只不过证明和确认了它。一 个人兴许口头上不服从它们的统治，但实际上，他仍然一直服从它。效用原理承认这一 统治，并将其作为一个体系的基础，这个体 系的目标是依靠理

5、性和法则来竖起幸福大 厦。试图怀疑这个原理的体系都是重言轻实， 任性昧理，弃明投暗。But enough of metaphor and declamation: it is not by such means that moral science is to be improved.比喻和雄辩之词够多了。道德科学不是靠这 类手段取得进步。II. The principle of utility is the foundation of the present work: it will be proper therefore at the outset to give an explicit

6、 and determinate account of what is meant by it. By the principle *7 of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is

7、the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness.I say of every action whatsoever, and therefore not only of every action of a private individual, but of every measure of government.II.效用原理是本书的基础。因此，应该首先 清楚说明它指的是什么。效用原理是这样一 个原理：赞成还是反对任何一项行动，都要 看这项行动是趋于增加还是减少与行动有关 的人的幸福，即是促进还是阻碍这

8、一幸福。 我说得是任何行动，因此既包括每项私人行 动，也包括每项政府措施。III. By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness, (all this in the present case comes to the same thing) or (what comes again to the same thing) to prevent the happening of mischief

9、, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered: if that party be the community in general, then the happiness of the community: if a particularIII.效用指的是任何物体的一种性质:它趋于 给利益相关者带来利益、有利条件、快乐、 好处或幸福（这些词语在这里的意思相同）， 或者趋于使利益相关者免于伤害、痛苦、不 幸或苦恼（这些词语的意思也相同）。如果利 益相关者是一个共同体，那么，上述幸福指 的是这个共同体的

10、幸福；如果利益相关者是 个人，那么，上述幸福指的是这个人的幸福。individual, then the happiness of that individual.IV. The interest of the community is one of the most general expressions that can occur in the phraseology of morals: no wonder that the meaning of it is often lost. When it has a meaning, it is this. The community is

11、a fictitious body, composed of the individual persons who are considered as constituting as it were its members. The interest of the community then is, what? the sum of the interests of the several members who compose it.IV.共同体的利益是有关道德的用语中最笼 统的词语，难怪它常常失去意义。当它有意 义时，它的意思要以如下方式理解：共同体 是一个虚构体，由个人组成，这些个人被

12、看作它的成员（The community is a fictitious body, composed of the individual persons who are considered as constituting as it were its members.）。那么，共同 体的利益是什么呢？是组成它的若干成员的 利益的和。V. It is in vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual.* A thing i

13、s said to promote the interest, or to be for the interest, of an individual, when it tends to add to the sum total of his pleasures: or, what comes to the same thing, to diminish the sum total of his pains.V.不理解个人利益是什么，谈论共同体的利 益是毫无意义的。说一个事物趋于增加一个 人的快乐或减少他的痛苦时，我们说它促进 他的利益或有利于他。VI. An action then may

14、be said to be conformable to the principle of utility, or, for shortness sake, to utility, (meaning with respect to the community at large) when the tendency it has to augment the happiness of the community is greater than any it has to diminish it.VI.于是，（就整个共同体而言）一项行动趋 于给共同体带来的幸福增加大于给它带来的 幸福减少时，就可以

15、说，这项行动符合效用 原理。VII. A measure of government (which is but a particular kind of action, performed by a particular person or persons) may be said to be conformable to or dictated by the principle of utility, when in like manner the tendency which it has to augment the happiness of the community is grea

16、ter than any which it has to diminish it.VII.（政府的措施只不过是由特殊的个人或 多个人执行的一类特殊行动。）类似，当一项 政府措施趋于给共同体带来的幸福增加大于 给它带来的幸福减少时，就可以说，它符合 效用原理。VIII. When an action, or in particular a measure of government, is supposed by a man to be conformable to the principle of utility, it may be convenient, for the purposes

17、of discourse, to imagine a kind of law or dictate, called a law or dictate of utility: and to speak of the action in question, as being conformable to such law or dictate.VIII.当一个人设想一项行动，尤其是政府措 施，符合效用原理时，为了便于讨论，可以 设想有一种法则或命令，称作效用法则或命 令，并把这项行动说成符合此类法则或命令。IX. A man may be said to be a partizan of the

18、principle of utility, when the approbation or disapprobation he annexes to any action, or to any measure, is determined by and proportioned to the tendency which he conceives it to have to augment or to diminish the happiness of the community: or in other words, to its conformity or unconformity to

19、the laws or dictates of效用原理的信徒按照一项行动是否符合效用 法则或命令赞成或反对这项行动，即他是赞 成还是反对一项行动或措施，取决于在他看 来，这项行动是趋于增加还是减少共同体的 幸福。utility.X. Of an action that is conformable to the principle of utility one may always say either that it is one that ought to be done, or at least that it is not one that ought not to be done.

20、One may say also, that it is right it should be done; at least that it is not wrong it should be done: that it is a right action; at least that it is not a wrong action. When thus interpreted, the words ought, and right and wrong and others of that stamp, have a meaning: when otherwise, they have none.对于一项符合效用原理的行动，我们就总是 可以说它是应当采取的行动，或至少它不是 不应当采取的行动。我们也可以说，措取这 一行动是对的，至少采取这一行动不是错的， 即它是正确的行动，至少不是错误的行动。如此解释，应当、对和错诸如此类的词语有了意义，否则它们毫无意义。