Note 215 — Chapter XI · THE ULTIMATE RELATION OF COST TO VALUE

Of course this power in the good exists only in relation to some human being. It is perfectly true that the good would have no such power if there were no man to use it, and that its power may change as the condition of the man using it is changed, and that its power over one man is different from its power over another. For these reasons, utility has often been declared to be subjective, as if it resided in the mind of the man. Whether it is subjective or objective depends precisely upon what one means by these terms. Practically we may say that our habitual thought correctly refers the utility to the good and conceives it as an attribute belonging to the good in virtue of its common physical properties. The utility of the good does not exist in the mind except in the sense in which all things exist in the mind. We should at least say that utility has objective reference. The satisfaction belongs to the mind, the utility to the good. The utility is a sort of objective counterpart or projection of the satisfaction.