Today’s conformity is the retreat from controversiality. There are many forms of utilitarianism, and the development of the theory has continued in recent years. I shall not survey these forms here, nor take account of the numerous refinements found in contemporary discussions. My aim is to work out a theory of justice that represents an alternative to utilitarian thought generally and so to all of these different versions of it. I believe that the contrast between the contract view and utilitarianism remains essentially the same in all these cases. Therefore I shall compare justice as fairness with familiar variants of intuitionism, perfectionism, and utilitarianism in order to bring out the underlying differences in the simplest way. With this end in mind, the kind of utilitarianism I shall describe here is the strict classical doctrine which receives perhaps its clearest and most accessible formulation in Henry Sidgwick. Henry Sidgwick was one of the most influential ethical philosophers of the Victorian era, and his work continues to exert a powerful influence on Anglo-American ethical and political theory, with an increasing global impact as well. The main idea is that society is rightly ordered, and therefore just, when its major institutions are arranged so as to achieve the greatest net balance of satisfaction summed over all the individuals belonging to it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

We may note first that there is, indeed, a way of thinking of society which makes it easy to suppose that the most rational conception of justice is utilitarian. For consider: each human in realizing one’s own interests is certainly free to balance one’s own losses against one’s own gains. We may impose a sacrifice on ourselves now for the sake of a greater advantage later. A person quite properly acts, at least wen others are not affected, to achieve one’s own greatest good, to advance one’s rational ends as far as possible. Now why should not a society act on precisely the same principle applied to the group and therefore regard that which is rational for one human is right for association of humans? Just as the well-being of a person is constructed from the series of satisfactions that are experienced at different moments in the course of one’s life, so in very much the same way the well-being of society is to be constructed from the fulfillment of the systems of desires of the many individuals who belong to it. Since the principle for an individual is to advance as far as possible one’s own welfare, one’s own system of desires, the principle for society is to advance as far as possible the welfare of the group, to realize to the great extent the comprehensive system of desire arrived at from the desires of its members. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

Just as an individual balances present and future gains against present and future losses, so a society may balance satisfactions and dissatisfactions between different individuals. And so by these reflections one reaches the principle of utility in a natural way: a society is properly arranged when its institutions maximize the net balance of satisfaction. In the early 1960s, just as the issues of race and schooling was becoming salient in the North and in the West, it seemed that Oakland, California might well be among the first communities substantially to desegregate its public schools. This was done by bussing mostly Black children in to predominately White schools so they could receive a superior education. Many social programs are looked at as a burden on taxpayers, but Kamala Harris was a participant of this program, and she has gone on to hold many prestigious offices, such as District Attorney in San Francisco, California, Attorney General of the State of California, a Senator in the United States of America, and now she is running for one of the highest offices in America, Vice President of the United States of America. These social programs prove that by being given a fair chance, people have the opportunity to become productive members of society and give back to the community. Many take advantage of these programs, but do not abuse them. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

The Capitalistic society is one that has helped life several people out of poverty by allowing them access to a quality education, which is a key to success. The principle of choice for an association of humans is interpreted as an extension of the principle of choice for one human. Social justice is the principle of rational prudence applied to an aggregative conception of the welfare of the group. And our social programs help to reduce poverty, crime and increase the pool of taxpaying Americans. This idea is made all the more attractive by a further consideration. The two main concepts of ethics are those of the right and the good; the concept of a morally worthy person is, I believe, derived from them. The structure of an ethical theory is, then, largely determined by how it defines and connects these two basic notions. Now it seems that the simplest way of relating them is taken by teleological theories: the good is defined independently from the right, and then the right is defined as that which maximizes the good. More precisely, those institutions and acts are right which of the available alternatives produce the most good, or at least as much good as any other institutions and acts open as real possibilities (a rider needed when the maximal class is not a singleton). #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

Teleological theories have a deep intuitive appeal since they seem to embody the idea of rationality. It is natural to think that rationality is maximizing something and that in morals it must be maximizing the good. Indeed, it is tempting to suppose that it is self-evident that things should be arranged so as to lead to the most good. It is essential to keep in mind that in a teleological theory the good is defined independently from the right. This means two things. First, the theory accounts for our considered judgments as to which things are good (our judgments of value) as a separate class of judgments intuitively distinguishable by common sense, and then proposes the hypothesis that the right is maximizing the good as already specified. Second, the theory enables one to judge the goodness of things without referring to what is right. For example, if pleasure is said to be the sole good, then presumably pleasure can be recognized and ranked in value by criteria that do not presuppose any standards of right, or what we would normally think of as such. Whereas if the distribution of goods is also counted as a good, perhaps a higher order one, and the theory directs us to produce the most good (including the good of distribution among others), we no longer have a teleological view in the classical sense. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

The problem of distribution falls under the concept of right as one intuitively understands it, and so they theory lacks an independent definition of the good. The clarity and simplicity of classical teleological theories derives largely from the fact that they factor our moral judgments into two classes, the one being characterized separately while the other is then connected with it by a maximizing principle. Teleological doctrines differ, pretty clearly, according to how the conception of the good is specified. If it is taken as the realization of human excellence in the various forms of culture, we have what many called perfectionism. This notion is found in Aristotle and Nietzsche, among others. If the good is defined as pleasure, we have hedonism; if as happiness, eudaimonism, and so on. I shall understand the principle of utility in its classical form as defining the good as the satisfaction of desire, or perhaps better, as the satisfaction of rational desire. This accords with the view in all essentials and provides, I believe, a fair interpretation of it. The appropriate terms of social cooperation are settled by whatever in the circumstances will achieve the greatest sum of satisfaction of the rational desires of individuals. It is impossible to deny the initial plausibility and attractiveness of this conception. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

The striking feature of the utilitarian view of justice is that it does not matter, except indirectly, how this sum of satisfactions is distributed among individuals any more than it matters, except indirectly, how one human distributes one’s satisfactions over time. The correct distribution in either case is that which yields the maximum fulfillment. Society must allocate its means of satisfaction whatever these are, rights and duties, opportunities and privileges, and various forms of wealth, so as to achieve this maximum if it can. However, in itself no distribution of satisfaction is better than another expect that the more equal distribution is to be preferred to break ties. It is true that certain common sense precepts of justice, particularly those which concern the protection of liberties and rights, or which express the claims of desert, seem to contradict this contention. However, from a utilitarian standpoint the explanation of these precepts and of their seemingly stringent character is that they are those precepts which experience shows should be strictly respected and departed from only under exceptional circumstances if the sum of advantages is to be maximized. Yet, as with all other precepts, those of justice are derivative from the one end of attaining the greatest balance of satisfaction. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

Thus there is no reason in principle why the greatest gains of some should not compensate for the lesser losses of others; or more importantly, why the violation of the liberty of a few might not be made right by the greater good shared by many. It simply happens that under most conditions, at least in a reasonably advanced stage of civilization, the greatest sum of advantages is not attained in this way. No doubt the strictness of common sense precepts of justice has a certain usefulness in limiting human’s propensities to injustice and to socially injurious actions, but the utilitarian believes that to affirm this strictness as a first principle of morals is a mistake. For just as it is rational for one person to maximize the fulfillment of one’s system of desires, it is right for a society to maximize the net balance of satisfaction taken over all of its members. The most natural way, then, of arriving at utilitarianism (although not, of course, the only way of doing so) is to adopt for society as a whole the principle of rational choice for one human. Once this is recognized, the place of the impartial spectator and the emphasis on sympathy in the history of utilitarian thought is readily understood. For it is by the conception of the impartial spectator and the use of sympathetic identification in guiding our imagination that the principle for one human is applied to society. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

It is this spectator who is conceived as carrying out the required organization of the desires of all persons into one coherent system of desire; it is by this construction that many persons are fused into one. Endowed with ideal powers of sympathy and imagination, the impartial spectator is the perfectly rational individual who identifies with and experiences the desires of others as if these desires were one’s own. In this way one ascertains the intensity of these desires and assigns them their appropriate weight in the one system of desire the satisfaction of which the ideal legislator then tries to maximize by adjusting the rules of the social system. On this conception of society separate individuals are thought of as so many different lines along which rights and duties are to be assigned and scare means of satisfaction allocated in accordance with rules so as to give the greatest fulfillment of wants. The nature of the decision made by the ideal legislator is not, therefore, materially different from that of an entrepreneur deciding how to maximize one’s profit by producing this or that commodity, or that of a consumer deciding how to maximize one’s satisfaction by the purchase of this or that collection of goods. In each case there is a single person whose system of desires determines the best allocation of limited means. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

The correct decision is essentially a question of efficient administration. This view of social cooperation is the consequence of extending to society the principle of choice for one human, and then, to make this extension work, conflating all persons into one through the imaginative acts of the impartial sympathetic spectator. Utilitarianism does not take seriously the distinction between persons. At any given time, the soul has a number of capacities that are not currently being actualized or utilized. To understand this, consider an acorn. The acorn has certain actual characteristics or states—a specific size, shape, or colour. However, it also has a number of capacities or potentialities that could become actual if certain things happen. For example, the acorn has the capacity to grow a root system or change into the shape of a tree. Likewise, the soul has capacities. I have the ability to see colour, think about math, or desire ice cream even while I am sleep and not in the actual states just mentioned. Now, capacities come in hierarchies. There are first-order capacities, second-order capacities to have these first-order capacities, and so on, until capacities are reached. For example, if I can speak English but not Russian, then I have the first-order capacity for English as well as the second-order language capacity to have this first-order capacity (which I have already developed). #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

I also have the second-order capacity to have the capacity to speak Russian, but I lack the first-order capacity to do so. Higher-order capacities are realized by the development of lower-order capacities under them. An acorn has the ultimate capacity to draw nourishment from the soil, but this can be actualized and unfolded only by developing the lower capacity to have a root system, then developing the still lower capacities of the root system, and so on. When something has a defect (for example, a child who is colour-blind), it does not lose its ultimate capacities. Rather, it lacks some lower-order capacity it needs for the ultimate capacity to be developed. The adult human soul has literally thousands of capacities within its structure. However, the soul is not just a collection of isolated, discrete, randomly related internal capacities. Rather, the various capacities within the soul fall into natural groupings called faculties of the soul. In order to get hold of this, think for a moment about this list of capacities: the ability to see red, see orange, hear a dog back, hear a tune, think about math, think about God, desire lunch, desire a family. Now it should be obvious that the ability to see read is more closely related to the ability to see orange than it is to the ability to think about math. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

We express this insight by saying that the abilities to see red or orange are parts of the same faculty—faculty of insight. The ability to think about math is a capacity within the thinking faculty. In general, a faculty is a compartment of the soul that contains a natural family of related capacities. We are now in a position to map out the soul in more detail. All the soul’s capacities to see are part of the faculty of sight. If my eyeballs are defective, then my soul’s faculty of sight will be inoperative just as a driver cannot get to work in one’s car if the spark plugs are broken. Likewise, if my eyeballs work but my soul is inattentive—say I am daydreaming—then I will not see what is before me either. The soul also contains faculties of smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Taken together, these five are called sensory faculties of the soul. The will is a faculty of the soul contains my abilities to choose. The emotional faculty of the soul contains my abilities to experience fear, love, and so forth. Two additional faculties of the soul are of crucial importance. The mind is that faculty of the soul that contains thoughts and beliefs along with the relevant abilities to have such things. It is with my mind that I think, and my mind contains beliefs. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

The spirit is the faculty of the soul through which the person relates to God. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me,” reports Psalm 51.10. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God,” reports Romans 8.16. “And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,” reports Ephesians 4.23. Before the new birth, the spirit is real and has certain abilities to be aware of God. However, most of the capacities of the unregenerate spirit are dead and inoperative. At the new birth, God implants new capacities in the spirit. These fresh capacities need to be nourished and developed so they can grow. Scripture tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and this insight applies to the souls as well as the body. As we have seen, the soul contains a rich set of faculties within it and each faculty contains a large number of specifically ordered abilities. As we learn more about how the soul functions, it becomes clear that the abilities present in a faculty of the soul can have an impact on other abilities within that very faculty. For example, a person can be so enslaved to eating Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizzas and Junior’s Original Cheesecake that one cannot say no to them. The person who simply does not have the volitional ability to refrain from delicious treats. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

If the person works on this second-order ability—for example, by choosing to ask one’s self regularly (especially just prior to a snack attack!) what comfort need is being met by eating deep dish pizza and cheesecake and finding alternative ways to meet that need—one can develop the first-order ability to refrain. The various spiritual disciplines of fasting, solitude, and so on work in just this way. They allow people to develop spiritual abilities that would be unavailable to them by direct effort. Sometimes the abilities within one faculty of the soul affect those in another faculty. If my emotional faculty is filled with feeling of racial hatred for a certain person, then I will not be able to see that person as valuable and precious, nor will I be able to think deeply about working for one’s welfare. The fact that one faculty can affect others explains why the new birth has the potential of transforming every aspect of one’s personality. Just as a seed grows to maturity, so the new spiritual life implanted in the soul can grow in its capacities. When this happens, the strengthened, maturing spirit can exert an influence on other aspects of the self. Similarly, a problem in a different faculty of the souls may need therapeutic counsel before a spiritual capacity can be developed. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Further, the body can impact my various faculties and vice versa. If my eyes are defective, I will not be able to use my faculty of sight to see anything. If I am angry or anxious much of the time, I can deplete my brain chemistry and this, in turn, can contribute to depression. Though we are unified selves, nevertheless, we are complicated beings in which the various faculties of the soul interact with each other and with the body in a number of different ways. The ancient Greeks and the Fathers of the church were right to believe that a virtuous, mature person is an individual with a well-ordered soul. With this in mind, let us look at why that specific faculty of the soul, the mind, is of such importance for spiritual transformation and maturity in virtue. The immediate presence of a teacher acts as a catalyst upon the student. One’s defects, no less than one’s virtues, cannot then be hidden for long, and circumstances will usually so arrange themselves that these qualities will glaringly reveal themselves in time. Hence this is necessary a probationary period. Tests will come not through any arbitrary act on the part of the teacher but through the ordinary events of everyday life and also through persons met. They are not alone tests of an ethical kind—after all, we are sinners until we realize truth—as of one’s devotion to truth rather than its counterfeits. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

The student will be tested first to observe how far one can remain personally loyal to the teacher—because the latter stands in symbolic truth—despite the efforts of critics and enemies to put a plausible face on their opposition. The most elementary condition of spiritual instruction is complete confidence between the teacher and pupil. All sorts of blind critics and malicious enemies will appear from time to time to attempt to disturb that confidence. They are unconsciously or consciously the instruments of the adverse elements in nature. One will be tested, too, by surface shocks to one’s prejudices, preconceived notions, and expectations. One will be tested to reveal how far one is willing to go in the unselfish service of humanity when such service comes into conflict with one’s personal interests. It does not follow that of one does not know when and where one is being tested the test is unfair. It is for one to use one’s intelligence at such times as at others, and to consult one’s pledge whenever doubts arise and difficulties occur. These tests will sometimes be plainly evident and therefore comparatively easy to pass through, but there are other which are more subtle or disguised and therefore more difficult to pass through. However, all tests have one object alone—to detach one from the path towards truth. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

If one keeps it clearly in one’s mind that there is a force trying to get one off the righteous path, it will help one to understand these tests, and those who emerge with unwavering confidence despite all the oppositions encountered will receive their reward. If after the probationary period is over—and its length cannot be fixed for it will vary with each individual—those whose feet still follow the teacher unhesitatingly and completely will naturally find the interval of tine probation and acceptance is much shorter than will those in whom doubts still linger and hesitation still arise. Roam about our land at will, Spirit of God, keeping it holy by your presence. Divine Guardian of rocks and trees, of grass and garden, of wild places and tame, of outbuildings and outside: please be benevolent to us, to those who tend your realm, and we will be benevolent to you, without condition because you are great. A piece of wild on the edge of the tame you are home to the Divine Spirit who lives with us. God, who lives here, please be pleased with the offering of our eternal devotion. Please give us a piece of the wild to keep us alive and fresh. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

“And now it came to pass that after the people of Ammon were established in the land of Jershon, and a church also established in the land of Jershon, and the armies of the Nephites were set round about the land of Jershon, yea, in all the borders round about the land of Zarahemla; behold the armies of the Lamanites had followed their brethren into the wilderness. And thus there was a tremendous battle; yea, even such an one as never had been known among all the people in the land from the time Lehi left Jerusalem; yea, and tens of thousands of the Lamanite were slain and scattered abroad. Yea, and also there was a tremendous slaughter among the people of Nephi; nevertheless, the Lamanites were driven and scattered, and the people of Nephi returned again to their land. And now this was a time that there was a great mourning and lamentation heard throughout al the land, among all the people of Nephi—yea, the cry of widows mourning for their husbands, and also of fathers mourning for their sons, and the daughter for the brother yea, the brother for the father; and thus the cry of mourning was heard among all of them, mourning for their kindred who had been slain. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

 “And now surely this was a sorrowful day; yea, a time of solemnity, and a time of much fasting and prayer. And thus endeth the fifteenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi; and this is the account of Ammon and his brethren, their journeyings in the land of Nephi, their sufferings in the land, their sorrows, and their afflictions, and their incomprehensible joy, and the reception and safety of the brethren in the land of Jershon. And now may the Lord, the Redeemer of all humans, bless their souls forever. And this is the account of the wars and contentions among the Nephites and the Lamanites; and the fifteenth year of the reign of the judges is ended. And from the first yea to the fifteenth has brought to pass an awful scene of bloodshed. And the bodies of may thousands are laid low in the Earth, while the bodies of many thousands are moldering in heaps upon the face of the Earth; yea, and many thousands are mourning for the loss of their kindred, because they have reason to fear, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are consigned to a state of endless wo. While many thousands of others truly mourn for the loss of their kindred, yet they rejoice and exult in their hope, and even know, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are raised to dwell at the right hand of God, in a state of neverending happiness.  #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

“And thus we see how great the inequality of humans is because of sin and transgression, and the power of the devil, which comes by the cunning plans which he hath devised to ensnare the hearts of humans. And thus we see the great call of diligence of humans to labour in the vineyards of the Lord; and this we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing—sorrow because of death and destruction among humans, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life,” Alma 28.1-14. Look down from Heaven, O Christ, on Thy flock and lambs, and bless their bodies and souls. Grant those who have received Thy sign, O Christ, on their foreheads, to be Thine own in the day of judgment. The Lord knows the thoughts of humans. However enunciable things are contained in the thoughts of humans. Therefore God knows enunciable things. Since it is the power of our intellect to form enunciations, and since God knows whatever is in His own power or in that of creatures, as said above, it follows of necessity that God knows all enunciations that can be formed. Now just as God knows material things immaterially, and composite things simply, so likewise He knows enunciable things not after the manner of enunciable things, as if in His intellect there were composition or division of enunciations; for God knows each thing by simple intelligence, by understanding all that can be predicted in humans. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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For it is not of me to write this freedom of speech, but in Thy mercy I ask you to proclaim the Truth, the everlasting, richness of Thy work to fulfill and sanctify you people so you save us. We are unworthy of your goodness, but believe you will grant us your grace.  Whatever those who are impaired rely upon, may the scriptures appeal to them and show them from sin to caring. If people are down trodden with apathy, let their taint be omitted. O God, to your ear we appeal, may you bless us with you care and may be find peace and be worthy to come to you. #CresleighHomes