A table of the springs of action : shewing the several species of pleasures and pains, of which man's nature is susceptible: together with the several species of interests, desires, and motives, respectively corresponding to them: and the several sets of appellatives, neutral, eulogistic and dyslogistic, by which each species of motive is wont to be designated: to which are added explanatory notes and observations ... / By Jeremy Bentham, Esq.

  • Bentham, Jeremy, 1748-1832.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A table of the springs of action : shewing the several species of pleasures and pains, of which man's nature is susceptible: together with the several species of interests, desires, and motives, respectively corresponding to them: and the several sets of appellatives, neutral, eulogistic and dyslogistic, by which each species of motive is wont to be designated: to which are added explanatory notes and observations ... / By Jeremy Bentham, Esq. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    example, is a natural accompaniment of the recollected idea of the past pleasure, when the expectation is that it wilt not be—as plea- sure is, when the expectation is that ii will he—again realized. And so in the case ot pains. (e) [simple] I. The pleasures and pains here brought to view are, every one of them, simple and elementary. Out of these, others in any number may be compounded ; and for the compound so made, appropriate denominations may be, and in an indefinite number have been, framed ; giving, each of them, to the compound object, especially in so far as the denomination employed is sin^te- ivorded, the aspect of a simple one. For example, in Note °(r), Pleasures of the bottle. 2. Love (the sexual) considered as a motive. 3. Love of justice. 4. Love of liberty. 2. Objection. The pleasures and pains styled, as above, s'mple, are not so in every instance : lor, under the import of the word physical pleasure (No. 3.) physical pleasures of alt sorts, with the several motives, are included. Answer. I he pleasure which, on any individual occasion, is here considered as being in question, is not the less simple: for, on the occasion here supposed, no more than one such pleasure is considered as being in pros|>ect, though that one mav be of any one of the species comprised under the class designated bv the word in question, viz physical. Whether of this same class, or ot any other cla^s, or of any two classes, suppose two pleasures, operating on the same occasion in the character of motives, then and then only js it that, to the pleasure and to the correspondent motive, the epithet compound, in the seme in which it is here em- ployed, is applicable. (/) [Interest'] 1. A man is said to have an interest in any subject in so t.n as that .adject is considered as more or less likely to be to him a source of pleasure or exemption :—subject, viz. thiny or per- son; thing, in virtue ot this or that me, which it may happen to him to derive from that thing; person, in virtue of this or that service, which it may happen to him to receive at the hands of that per- son. 2. A man is said to have an interest in the performance, of this or that act, by himself or any oilier—or in the taking place of this or that event or state oj things,— in so far as, upon and in consequence ot its having place, this or that good (i. e. pleasure or exemption) is considered as being more or less likeiy to be possessed by him. 3. it is said to be u man's interest Inal the act, the event, or the state of things in question should have place, in so tar as it is sup- posed that—upon, and in consequence of, its having place—good, to a grea er value, will be possessed by him than in the contrary case. Jn the lormer case, interest corresponds to a single item in the account of good and evil: in the latter case it corresponds to a balance on the side of good. 4. For the word interest no synonyms have been found.