The idea of utility as a state law ideal of the English liberalism of the XVIII century

The political, legal and moral ideas of F. Bacon, T. Hobbes and the thinkers of the French Enlightenment in the conditions of resurgent capitalist relations in England of the XVIII century, supported by A. Smith’s economic liberalism, generated I. Bentham's utilitarian doctrine in all sphere of social phenomena, in policy and law treating then the idea of utility as a state law ideal. The Bentham principle of “happiness for the greatest number of people” is insolvent from the point of view of moral positions and moral state of modern society, despite humanistic ideas of justice and equality recognized already in the Enlightenment. It is proved that in a complex system of diverse human relations, Bentham’s mechanistic approach to social phenomena of general nature cannot be consistent. Detailed justification of this statement should be sought in methodological principles of functioning of complex systems.