Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”
- Source
- A Fragment on Government
- Date
- 1776
- Local voice
- Authorial / signed preface voice · Jeremy Bentham
Meaning of “it is the greatest happiness of the greatest…”
Bentham states the utilitarian standard he uses to judge laws and institutions: their moral evaluation should turn on the happiness produced for the people affected.
Where does it come from?
A Fragment on Government, Preface (1776). Bentham introduces the 'greatest happiness of the greatest number' formulation as a fundamental axiom while arguing for criticism and reform of established law. This remains eighteenth-century utilitarian legal/political philosophy rather than a settled universal ethical or policy metric.
Why the local voice matters
A Fragment on Government, Preface. Bentham presents this as a fundamental utilitarian axiom within eighteenth-century legal and political philosophy.