Publishing Guide

Upcoming Events

National | Anti-Capitalism

no events match your query!

New Events

22 Mar [Dublin] National Demonstration for Palestine: End...

more >>

Other Press

Anti-Capitalism

France Rises Up Against the New Fascism - Vaccine Passports 23:57 Jul 21 3 comments

George Floyd: one death too many in the “land of the free” 23:58 Jun 23 0 comments

The leveraged buyout, exploitation and punishment beating of Greece as warning to others. 11:45 May 11 0 comments

Red Banner issue 60 out now 13:18 Jun 22 0 comments

Red Banner issue 59 out now 17:46 Mar 28 0 comments

more >>

User Preferences

Feeds

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry

Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland

Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The ?Expert? Moral Academics Who Want to Use Special Mind-Control Pills to Infect You With Environme... Sun Aug 24, 2025 07:00 | Steven Tucker
To nudge people more agreeably Left-wing, US academics are cooking up Frankenstein-style mind-control schemes to promote veganism, woke parenting and Covid compliance, warns Steven Tucker.
The post The ?Expert? Moral Academics Who Want to Use Special Mind-Control Pills to Infect You With Environmentalism, Covid Compliance and a Thoroughly Lax Parenting Style appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

News Round-Up Sun Aug 24, 2025 01:12 | Toby Young
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Almost a Million Young Britons Idle as Migrant Workforce Soars Sat Aug 23, 2025 19:00 | Richard Eldred
Almost a million young Britons under 25 are out of work while migrant youth employment has quadrupled, prompting calls for a "future workforce credit" to get Brits into jobs and ease rising welfare costs.
The post Almost a Million Young Britons Idle as Migrant Workforce Soars appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Brighton Council Latest to Take Down St George?s Flags Sat Aug 23, 2025 17:22 | Richard Eldred
Brighton has become the latest council to start taking down St George's flags, with removals on hold after contractors faced verbal abuse.
The post Brighton Council Latest to Take Down St George?s Flags appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

The ?Zombie? Net Zero Levy Adding Billions to Britain?s Energy Bills Sat Aug 23, 2025 15:00 | Richard Eldred
A 'zombie' Net Zero levy, set up under Tony Blair to boost renewables, is still eating billions from household energy bills, even though it closed to new entrants in 2017 ? and it's only set to get worse.
The post The ?Zombie? Net Zero Levy Adding Billions to Britain?s Energy Bills appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network

Voltaire, international edition

Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Utilitarianism and Irish Left

national | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Friday January 22, 2016 12:58

by Paddy Hackett

Report this post to the editors

Utilitarianism is the hidden basis for the moral and philosophical basis of much of the Irish Left

In general the Left in Ireland is utilitarian in their moral and political philosophy. It is forever making demands for this and that. Generally its demands are not concerned with the need for the emancipation of the working class together with the need to eliminate alienation. This is because it does not seek the elimination of capitalism. Instead it seeks the Utilitarian increase in pleasure and reduction in pain. The greater happiness principle of Jeremy Bentham. The latter believed that “the greater happiness of the greatest number” was achievable within capitalism. This is essentially the position of much of the radical Left. This Left is not even reformist. Reformists claim that it is possible to incrementally turn capitalism into socialism by means of reforms. This Left’s call for socialism is at most aspirational. It does not dialectically tie it in with its Utilitarian Action Programmes. It's political philosophy is a vulgar version of Utilitarianism. It is not even aware of the Utilitarian moral assumptions underlying its political outlook.

Utilitarianism is a reductionist moral philosophy. For it the unit of society is the individual. Consequently it ignores class division and advocates cross class policies as does much of the Irish Left. It's active leadership of the anti-property tax and anti-water rates campaigns are an example of this. It's support for electoralism is another. The latter means the support of the atomisation of the working class though elections under representative democracy.

Add Your Comments >>

printable version

with comments

atom feed of comments

rss feed of comments

RSS and atom feeds allow you to keep track of new comments on particular stories. You can input the URL's from these links into a rss reader and you will be informed whenever somebody posts a new comment.

Digg this

Furl

Reddit

Gab

Twitter

save preference

Comments (5 of 5)

#	Title	Author	Date
1	Please do us a favor	Mike Novack	Sat Jan 23, 2016 12:52
2	Bullshit Watcher.	Pesky Pete.	Sat Jan 23, 2016 17:56
3	Mike and Utilitarianism	Paddy Hackett	Sat Jan 23, 2016 18:53
4	You really need to keep focused on the argument	Mike Novack	Sun Jan 24, 2016 23:09
5	Bentham Again	Paddy Hackett	Sun Jan 31, 2016 23:46

Add Your Comments >>

© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy