APPLICATION OF THE TERM UTILITY BY M. SAY.
It would lead me too far and into too many repetitions, if I were to go
through the principal definitions of the continental political
economists, and examine the manner in which they have used their terms
in reference to the obvious rules above laid down; but I cannot resist
noticing one very signal deviation from them in the justly distinguished
work of M. Say. It relates to the term _utility_.
It must be allowed by those who are acquainted with M. Say’s work,
first, that he has used the term utility in a sense totally different
from that in which it is used in common conversation, and in the
language of those who are considered as the best authorities in
political economy. Proceeding upon the principle, that nothing can be
valuable which is not useful to some person or other, he has strangely
identified utility and value, and made the utility of a commodity
proportionate to its value, although the custom is universal of
distinguishing between that which is useful and that which is merely
high-priced, of that which is calculated to satisfy the acknowledged and
general wants of mankind, and that which may be only calculated to
satisfy the capricious tastes of a few. He has thus violated the first
and most obvious rule for the use of terms.
Secondly, he has gone directly against the usage of the best writers in
political economy, and particularly against the authority of Adam Smith,
whom he himself considers as the main founder of the science. Adam Smith
has declared his opinion in the most decided manner on this subject, by
contrasting value in use, and value in exchange, and illustrating the
distinction between them by adducing the marked instances of a diamond
and water. M. Say, therefore, in the manner in which he has applied the
term utility, has violated the second obvious rule for the use of terms,
as well as the first.
Thirdly, the objections to the old terms in use, wealth and value, if
there were any, do not by any means seem to have been such as to warrant
the introduction of a new term. The object of M. Say seems to have been
to show, that production does not mean production of new matter in the
universe, but I cannot believe that even the Economists had this idea;
and it is quite certain that Adam Smith’s definition of production
completely excludes it. “There is one sort of labour,” he says, “which
adds to the value of the subject on which it is bestowed * * * and as it
produces a value may be called productive.”[2] There is, certainly, no
question here about the creation of new matter. And as M. Say observes,
that when things are in their ordinary and natural state their value is
the measure of their utility, while he had before affirmed that riches
were in proportion to value,[3] it is difficult to conceive what
beneficial purpose he could have in view in introducing the term utility
thus made synonymous with value or riches.
Fourthly, as the terms useful and utility are in such very common use,
when applied in their accustomed sense, and cannot easily be supplied by
others, it is extremely difficult to confine their application to the
new sense proposed by M. Say. It is scarcely possible not to use them
sometimes, as M. Say himself has done, according to their ordinary
acceptation; but this necessarily introduces uncertainty and obscurity
into the language of political economy.
M. Say had before made little or no distinction between riches and
value, two terms which Mr. Ricardo justly considers as essentially
different. He then introduces another term, utility, which, as he
applies it, can hardly be distinguished from either of the others. The
new term, therefore, could not have been called for; and it must be
allowed that the use of it in the sense proposed, violates all the most
obvious rules for the introduction of a new term into any science.