UTILITARIAN ECONOMICS.
THE " riddle of the universe " is: What are we here for? or, as Humboldt expressed it: " Wiissten wir nur wenigstens, warum wir auf dieser Welt sind ?"* Many besides Kidd have admitted that " there is no rational sanction for the conditions of progress." 8 The fact that we are here, and the fact that we constantly make sacrifices to secure our remaining here, become, therefore, to the thoughtful, troublesome puzzles. The great mass of mankind give no thought to the subject. Even the intelligent are for the most part content to feel that there, is something within them that makes them cling to life irrespect- ive of whether life is a gain or a loss.
Hitherto the subject has been approached either from the religious, the ethical, or the philosophical point of view, but quite recently for the first time it has been approached from the economic point of view. Dr. Simon N. Patten has pointed out that society presents us with two very different kinds of economy a pain economy and a pleasure economy. 3 This puts the whole question in an entirely new light, and opens up novel and promising lines of discussion looking to its solution It is not that the truth itself is an altogether new one, but chiefly that it furnishes a new standpoint from which to con- template the old truth.
I have been for many years engaged in trying to solve this problem. I have shown that it has as its basis the fact called feeling, *. e. t pleasure and pain. I have endeavored to demon- strate that feeling has had an objective and not a subjective origin, that it is simply a condition to the existence of the beings that possess it, and that the phenomena of good and evil are
1 Memoiren, Vol. I, p. 367. Social Evolution, p. 59.
3 The Theory of Social Forces. Supplement to the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. VII, No. I, January, 1896, pp. 75 ff.
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