David Hume is often credited as first utilitist, and was the one of the more important pioneers of the utilitarian movement. It was his teachings that influenced similar economic minds such as Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham. During his lifetime Hume often talked about issues of morality and ethics. He claimed that acts of individual kindness set a sort of example for a community and that said example would aid in the setting of a standard of good behavior that would be a plus for society. He believed not only that we as a society needed laws or “general rules”, but that there should be a rigid, inflexible adherence to them. This would also help keep abuses of the system to a minimum, Hume argued, because such misconduct typically arises from loopholes or imprecise language. His principle of utility can …show more content…
In his Theory of the Moral Sentiments, Smith goes so far as to declare the level of adherence to these rules is what separates those of honor and substance from more base individuals. Smith however does bring an interesting qualifier to the conversation; a question of where these “general rules” come from. He did not think that it made logical sense for us as a society to disapprove of certain acts simply because they went against an oh-so-sacred general rule, rather than taking the time to consider the circumstances of an individual case. To choose an extreme example Smith would think it silly to outlaw murder because it's outside the letter of a general rule; we outlaw murder because we know it to be inimical to society’s progress. In contrast, Friedrich Hayek, another economist influenced by Hume believed “few beliefs have been more destructive of the respect for the rules of law and of morals than the idea that the rule is binding only if the beneficial effect of observing it in the particular instance can be recognized.” The disconnect between these points of view is one of