Utilitarianism, Early Socialism, and Positivism
Utilitarianism
The utilitarian movement was an almost exclusively British philosophical inquiry into the workings of government and the principles behind action arising from increasing industrialization and the likewise increase in city populations, displacement of large numbers of Europeans, the growing gap between the rich and poor, and the suffering of the masses in this new industrial era. Utilitarians advocated a series of political, social, and economic reforms based on the principles of liberalism and the need for more efficient and responsive constitutional government. They had a great impact on the way people thought about democratic government and society by calling to attention the need for major reforms and changes in the way democracy ran. Many of the changes pursued and achieved in the late 1800's which resulted in better working conditions for the working classes and change in governmental structure in democratic nations, particularly Britain and the United States, were important and long-lasting reforms still looked upon today as pillars of democracy.
Utilitarianism was basically the study of law based on simple rules, obtained by empirical inquiry into human nature and the motivation of human behavior. It tried to observe and explain ethics and politics in scientific and rational way. Most utilitarian theories were discussions involving both the scientific and moralistic aspects of government, trying to blend the two together. Much of it was based upon empirical investigation, hedonism (subjective pursuit of anything bringing any kind of pleasure), and liberal thought on political affairs.
The philosophy of Utilitarianism was based on the principle of utility, or the ability of an action to please individuals and its ability to please as many individuals as possible (achieving "the greatest good for the greatest number"). It was established that human behavior is limited to the extent of avoiding as much "pain" and seeking as much "pleasure" as possible by way of action. The utility of any action, therefore, would depend upon the maximum minimization of pain and maximization of pleasure resulting from it in the largest group of people possible. The role of government is to, as a result, achieve utility by this simple "pleasure-pain scale" for any action, with the most favorable action giving the most pleasure to the largest number of individuals possible. The way government usually achieves happiness in society is by rewarding and punishing actions, giving them pleasure and pain "values," if you will, to induce society to go on a morally fulfilling path. When calculating behavior, government must look specifically at two factors: man always acts in self-interest, and the equal pleasures of individuals are equally good. It must use the felicific calculus (a way of measuring pleasure and pain depending upon 14 different general pleasures and 12 different pains classified into 6 different categories) to determine the overall pleasure-pain relationship of an action in its constituency as a whole. By this felicific calculus, legislators and government officials would be able to tell whether a particular action would or would not be beneficial to the public as a whole in terms of end results.
The concepts of ego and individualism are also touched upon in this theory, as the utilitarians were deeply interested in the autonomy of the individual and the way government was obligated to act towards him. First of all, the theory stated that a community was a fictitious body, essentially made up of the individuals comprising it. Legislators were supposed to lead their own communities by function, and were obligated to perform certain functions based upon the felicific calculus. They were supposed to perform action to increase the pleasure of others, which would thereby increase that of their own. In that way, their private interests would have to coincide with the public interest. The idea of sovereignty in Utilitarianism is also very important, because utilitarians believed in the power of laws of the sovereign power. Such laws were to be mainly used in the reformation of government, for the intent purposes of efficiency, codification, and simplification.
The main component which would further increase the success of utilitarianism was intensive social reform which the utilitarians proposed for the creation of greater utility. They feared the "entrenchment" of political power due to vested interests (seem familiar?) and wanted to check the authority of government by increasing public participation in its management. A key element in bringing this to reality was the furthering of education. Utilitarians believed that compulsory primary and secondary education was the way the public could understand the workings of their government and work to preserve their vital interest in its integrity. At that point, the level of chaos in society would dwindle and rates of literacy and understanding would rise. Utilitarians also called for universal manhood suffrage, which would mean that any competent man would be allowed to vote regardless of social or economic status (they later extended this to everyone), which would finalize the participation of the citizenry into the government. Among other things, the liberal ideas of the utilitarians also called for drastic labor reform (the shortening of the workweek, the end of child labor and slavery), self-determination in European colonies (where the individuals of the colony decide their form of governance), and free trade (unrestricted trade with minimal government customs restrictions placed for the public good).
Early Socialism
The early "socialism" (coined that by French socialists, the first ones) was also called "utopian socialism," because it tried to bring forth a government involved in "social" interests which were altruistic and optimistic in nature. This line of thinking was primarily brought on by the French industrial revolution, which had created several new problems, and was essentially a reactionistic response to it (how odd it is that such a liberal and far left philosophy began in reactionism to an established order). Hostile class conflicts arose as the proletariat (worker's class) and lower classes grew angry at their bourgeoisie (moneyed class) bosses with the growing income disparity between the two. Technological unemployment rose as industry drove out labor-intensive cottage industries through ruthless competition. The growth of the industrial towns brought urban squalor, misery, and anarchy for the destitute and poor.
This socialism was basically a harsh criticism of the emerging Industrial Order. Early socialists were hostile towards industrialization, capitalism, and market competition. Many critics of this ideal objectively pointed out this theory's overly simple analysis of society and human behavior. This primarily arose from the theory's belief in an automatic period of harmony and peace with the removal of the current order. It also rejected the flaws in revolutionary action and consequence, overlooking past revolutionary events which had been led on a much more violent course. However, as naive as they were, the utopian socialists did have some very provocative theories which would be later used by the likes of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. They upheld the role of the proletariat in the end of the old order, the need and inevitability of the class struggle, surplus value and the exploitation of the worker, and importance in economics when dealing with social situations.
Positivism
Positivism was an offshoot of utopian socialism which placed emphasis on physical laws to answer questions of society and thus solve social problems. Positivists claimed that knowledge, whatever its nature, was derived and obtained from scientific observation and testing. They believed that the laws of the science of social trends (termed social science) could be obtained and used to achieve social order. This social science could be used to predict social behavior with these pre-established laws in the future, just as prediction was possible by definite laws in the physical sciences. In the process of building positivism, the positivists actually became the first sociologists.
The theory encompassed a great deal on the analysis of human history. Initially, positivists thought that history oscillated between organic (growth) and critical (change) periods, using the philosophy of Comte de Saint Simon. Later, they began to believe a philosophy of Auguste Comte (the eventual leader of positivism after Saint Simon ) which described human history as a three-staged chronology of progress, with each stage having a different social organization based on the social environment of the time, with action based on different principles at each stage. The first stage was the theological stage, when supernatural theories about deities and demons were used to account for the unexplained occurrences of the physical world. Man soon progressed to the metaphysical stage, when the power of the abstract and the unknown was not questioned and left just so because there was no credible explanation for the unexplained yet, leaving "intellectual anarchy" and "dogmatic chaos" in its wake. The third stage, the "positive" era (one to be based on reason and science), was about to begin, and involved the rule of reason, science, and logic over previous stages for the rest of mankind's history.
The future government of the "positivist" stage would be very hierarchial and orderly, ruled by specialists who would manage government in their respective specialties (people like bankers, doctors, and intellectuals). The organization of life would be dictated by the rulers, who would know the scientifically correct actions for society to embark upon. There would be a new secular "Religion of Humanity" replacing all previous holdover thought from the theological and metaphysical stages, emphasizing the humanistic values of social love and the brotherhood of men. Action from the individual would arise from a sense of duty towards humanity rather than as a result of rights and self-interest, all going towards a "new social order." Positivism tried to combine science with the morality of government, but was far too optimistic and pluralistic to be a realistic theory to follow.