John Austin: The Province of Jurisprudence Determined – The limits of utilitarianism

Although Austin advocates utilitarianism in case of determining the commands of divinity, he is aware of its limits, which are ultimately the limits of the human mind. In other words, there are numerous possible cases to consider and no single person can ever determine the proper course of action for all of them, and indeed, most people have never enough time to determine even the most central duties.

Austin’s answer is that this problem is actually common to all sciences. For instance, no single person can find out all the truths of mathematics, but these have been revealed bit by bit by different mathematicians. Indeed, even nowadays no one knows everything in mathematics perfectly and even the mathematicians must rely on the authority of other mathematicians to be convinced of such mathematical truths they have not had the opportunity to study themselves.

Austin admits that the case of ethical studies is still somewhat different from other sciences, because there are not that many impartial persons researching ethics, but essays on ethics are often marred by personal interests or by adherence to unreasoned customs. Because of this, no reliable consensus has been reached and thus there is as yet no ethical authority to follow.

Yet, Austin sees this lack more as a temporary impediment than as a permanent obstacle for the development of ethics. Indeed, he is certain that there is an extensive consensus at least of the basic principles of ethics. Austin even suggests that anyone could by now learn these principles and thus develop a trust on the authority of professional ethicists applying these principles to practice: he gives a somewhat hopeful example that the poor will completely stop thieving, once they have understood that the institution of private property is good for the whole society. In any case, Austin insists, the more the utilitarian principles will spread among the populace, the more people there will be to do proper scientific ethics.

A faultless system of ethics can never be found, Austin says. Still, we as a society can at least improve our understanding of ethics and come more and more closer this system and full knowledge of God’s commands.