Taking Bentham Seriously

No, Utilitarians Are Not Nice, Contentions, September 27, 2011. "It is all very well to suggest that legislation should seek to do more good that harm. But the problem with applying utilitarianism to legislation, in Bentham’s day or ours, is that someone has to decide which ends serve the greater good, just as the Ivy League experiments require someone to decide who lives and who dies, and just as top-down legislation in the progressive tradition requires wisdom that no single person possesses. This vision presumes the goal of legislation is control and direction, not the promotion of freedom under law."