Thoughts on Canadian Political Culture: Criticisms, Reviews and the Poverty of Parliament
Excavations
... nothing is more essential to public interest than the preservation of public liberty.
- David Hume
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Stephen Harper's deep thoughts on Texas flooding, India's heat, and California's drought
"Climate change OK; government change - not."
Sunday, May 24, 2015
A "fundamental axiom" ignored: Harper sidesteps Bentham and the Consortium Broadcasters
By stirring up debate on the election debates, and by possibly
not attending debates managed by the Consortium (CBC, CTV and Global TV) with a
potential of about 14 million viewers – or almost half of Canada’s population -
Harper has thumbed his nose at a tradition of British Utilitarian thinking.
… it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the
measure of right and wrong.
Jeremy Bentham, A Fragment on Government, 1776
Jeremy Bentham, A Fragment on Government, 1776
… the good and
happiness of the members, that is the majority of the members, of any state is
the great standard by which everything relating to the state must finally be
determined.
Joseph Priestly, Essay on Government, 1768[1]
Joseph Priestly, Essay on Government, 1768[1]
… that action is best
which secures the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Francis Hutcheson, Enquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil, 1725
Francis Hutcheson, Enquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil, 1725
[1]
See Leslie Stephen, The English
Utilitarians, Vol 1 (London: Continuum International Publishing, 2005), p.
178 footnote.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
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