Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/371

 III.-CAN THERE BE A SUM OF PLEASURES P 1 BY HASTINGS KASHDALL. THE doctrine that pleasures cannot be summed, that there is no meaning in the idea of a sum of pleasures and that consequently the " hedonistic calculus " is impossible and unintelligible, has long been maintained by a certain section of anti-utilitarian writers, among whom it will be enough to mention the late Prof. T. H. Green and Mr. Bradley. It must be confessed, however, that it is not very easy to extract from either of these writers the exact grounds or even the precise meaning of their contention. Prof. Mac- kenzie in his Manual of Ethics and his Introduction to Social Philosophy has performed a real service by putting the doctrine into a form in which it is more easy to subject it to exam- ination and criticism. In the following pages, however, I shall not confine myself to what Prof. Mackenzie has ad- vanced, as what appear to me the misconceptions which underlie his reasoning are widely diffused and seem often to be assumed in the language of writers who have been less explicit. My object is rather to get to the bottom of the misunderstanding than to criticise any particular writer ; I do not therefore wish to be understood as holding Prof. Mackenzie responsible for every argument that I may criti- cise except where I expressly quote him. It may be well at the outset to explain that I am not in the least interested in the defence either of the hedonistic Psychology or of hedonistic Utilitarianism, both of which I entirely reject on much the same grounds as those which would be assigned by the writers I am criticising writers with some of whom I should largely agree in their general view of Ethics. This is particularly the case with regard to Prof. Mackenzie, who is entirely free from that sectarian prejudice against Casuistry and that dislike to the scientific treatment of practical problems which are characteristic of several writers by whom the incommensurability of pleasures has been maintained. It is unnecessary for my present 1 Read before the Aristotelian Society.