Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900) was a moral philosopher , a politician and mostly a utilitarian who took the origins of his thought in John Stuart Mill’s and Bentham’s utilitarianism . The difference between those two and Sidgwick lies in the socialistic tendency of J.S. Mill and Bentham which Sidgwick refuses. In fact, he desires the same things for the society: that every one, the government as well as the citizens, act in order to create a better happiness for the individuals and for the all community; but he considers the socialist principle of realising the equality of happiness impossible and politically as well as economically wrong.

Henry Sidgwick is a major philosopher of Utilitarianism, as he is the successor of Jeremy Bentham, John and James Stuart Mill. The aim of this website is to present this philosopher, his written work and all the events organised arround him as well as the international research program of Utilitarian University Scholars.

 

First Book in French about SIDGWICK

POLITIQUES COMPAREES
Henry Sidgwick et la politique moderne dans les "Eléments Politiques"
Author:
Hortense GENINET
On AbeBooks

Book Review by Placido BUCOLO
Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy
University of Catania Italy

 

New Book:

Sidgwick and Contemporary Utilitarianism

by Mariko Nakano-Okuno

This is one of the rare academic studies on what John Rawls, Peter Singer and Derek Parfit acknowledge as the finest book in ethics – The Methods of Ethics written by Henry Sidgwick. With a rather shocking conclusion that 'none of us can match Sidgwick', Mariko Nakano-Okuno elaborately and lucidly analyzes Henry Sidgwick's impacts on contemporary ethics, including critical reassessment of the utilitarian philosophy of R. M. Hare, J. C. Harsanyi and R.B. Brandt. 

Sidgwick and Contemporary Utilitarianism will be a must-read book for all professional philosophers as well as students concerned with Sidgwick's moral philosophy, utilitarian ethics, and the theoretical foundations of ethics in general. Its language is plain and reader-friendly, which enables philosophy beginners to understand the fundamental questions of ethics more easily and clearly than ever.

See: amazon.co.uk