Inquiry Book

I recently heard of the divide between "splitters" and "lumpers" in academia. A "splitter" is an individual who prefers precise definitions and creates lots of categories and differentiation. A "lumper" is an individual who takes a gestalt view of a definition and assumes that differences are not as important as signature similarities.

Bentham is a classic splitter. This book is about how to judge an act from a moral and legislative perspective. As a utilitarian, Bentham believes we should judge acts on the amount of pleasure or benefit they generate compared to the amount of pain or loss. He spends the book getting extremely detailed and raising issues around how exactly we perform the calculations.

To start, there are seven variables that go into calculating pleasure and pain:
1. Its intensity.
2. Its duration.
3. Its certainty or uncertainty.
4. Its propinquity or remoteness.
5. Its fecundity.
6. Its purity.
7. Its extent; that is, the number of persons to whom it extends; or (in other words) who are affected by it.

Then there are about 50 different kinds of pleasure and pain. Then 30 different "circumstances" to take into account, such as the person's sex, age, and education, which may 'influence the actor's sensibility.' Then 16 "secondary circumstances," such as strength of mind or moral biases. Then 9 different classes of motives. Etc. Interesting to think about, especially if you are also a splitter :)