henry sidgwick ethics

Henry's mother was Mary Sidgwick, née Crofts (1807–79). Go to Henry Sidgwick blog. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy indicates that The Methods of Ethics "in many ways marked the culmination of the classical utilitarian tradition." John Rawls called it the "first truly academic work in moral theory, modern in both method and spirit".[4]. His efforts to show that utilitarianism is substantially compatible with common moral values helped to popularize utilitarian ethics in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The effort to examine, closely but quite neutrally,the system of Egoistic Hedonism, with which we have beenengaged in the last Book, may not improbably have producedon the reader’s mind a certain aversion to the principle andmethod examined, even though (like myself) he may find itdifficult not to admit the ‘authority’ of self-love, or the‘rationality’ of seeking one’s own individual happiness. Newnham College's co-founder was Millicent Garrett Fawcett. [18], Sidgwick would have a major influence on the development of welfare economics, due to his own work on the subject inspiring Arthur Cecil Pigou's work The Economics of Welfare. Contemporary utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer has said that the Methods "is simply the best book on ethics ever written."[3]. The problem lies with squaring utilitarianism with egoism. (englisch und französisch) Henry Sidgwick blog. [12], Bernard Williams would refer to Sidgwickian esoteric utilitarianism as "Government House Utilitarianism" and claim that it reflects the elite British colonialist setting of Sidgwick's thought. [2] He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research and a member of the Metaphysical Society and promoted the higher education of women. Sidgwick’s Methods of Ethics was—and is—important for many reasons. [3] The Sidgwick Site, home to several of the university's arts and humanities faculties, is named after him. His wife became principal of the college after Clough's death in 1892, and they lived there for the rest of his life. Er gilt im angelsächsischen Raum vielfach als der erste moderne Moralphilosoph. Most of Sidgwick’s 500-page book is devoted to a careful and systematic examination of these three methods. [2][7], He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research, and was a member of the Metaphysical Society.[5]. [5] While at Cambridge Sidgwick taught a young Bertrand Russell.[6]. Contemporary utilitaria… Please login to your account first; Need help? He claims that two methods—intuitionism and utilitarianism—can be fully harmonized. But appeals to religion, Sidgwick argues, are inappropriate in philosophical ethics, which should aspire to be “scientific” in its exclusion of theological or supernaturalistic assumptions. Henry Sidgwick was educated at Rugby (where his cousin, subsequently his brother-in-law, Edward White Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was a master), and at Trinity College, Cambridge. To a great extent they do, Sidgwick argues, but it cannot be proved that they never conflict, except by appeal to a divine system of punishments and rewards that Sidgwick believes is out of place in a work of philosophical ethics. The careful, painstaking, and detailed way Sidgwick discusses moral problems was an important influence on G. E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, and other founders of Anglo-American analytic philosophy. Besides his lecturing and literary labours, Sidgwick took an active part in the business of the university and in many forms of social and philanthropic work. In 1869, he exchanged his lectureship in classics for one in moral philosophy, a subject to which he had been turning his attention. He also founded Newnham College in 1875, a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, which was only the second Cambridge college to admit women. Marcus G. Singer (Oxford, 2000), abbreviated EEM. This Hackett edition, first published in 1981, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the seventh (1907) edition as published by Macmillan and Company, Limited.From the forward by John Rawls: In the utilitarian tradition Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900) has an important place. v. C. Bauer. But can it be demonstrated that they always coincide? Henry Sidgwick on Facebook. Henry Sidgwick, And Later Utilitarian Political Philosophy William C. Havard. A flurry of attention is currently being paid to Henry Sidgwick. Psychological hedonism states that everyone always will do what is in their self interest, whereas ethical hedonism states that everyone ought to do what is in the general interest. According to Sidgwick, there are three fundamental methods of ethics: egoistic hedonism, intuitionism, utilitarianism. Henry Sidgwick has 40 books on Goodreads with 1790 ratings. Sidgwick’s Methods of Ethics (1874) is the most detailed and subtle work of utilitarian ethics yet produced. [19] For the rest of his life, although he regarded Christianity as "indispensable and irreplaceable – looking at it from a sociological point of view," he found himself unable to return to it as a religion. He asserts, “The first and most fundamental assumption , involved not only in the empirical method of Egoistic Hedonism, but in the very conception of ‘Greatest Happiness’ as an end of action, is the commensurability of Pleasures and Pains. [16] John Deigh, however, disputes Schultz's explanation, and instead attributes this fall in interest in Sidgwick to changing philosophical understandings of axioms in mathematics, which would throw into question whether axiomatization provided an appropriate model for a foundationalist epistemology of the sort Sidgwick tried to build for ethics. He was educated at Rugby (where his cousin, subsequently his brother-in-law, E. W. Benson—afterwards archbishop—was a master), and at Trinity, Cambridge, where his career was a … Sidgwick responded to these changes by preferring to emphasize the similarities between the old economics and the new, choosing to base his work on J.S. Sidgwick developed this position due to his dissatisfaction with an inconsistency in Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism, between what he labels “psychological hedonism” and “ethical hedonism”. in English . The Methods of Ethics Henry Sidgwick I/1: Introduction BOOK I Chapter 1: Introduction 1. Roger Crisp, The Cosmos of Duty: Henry Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics, Oxford University Press, 2015, 256pp., $60.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780198716358. Pages: 205. Introduction : Three Takes by R. Crisp, B.Schultz, P. Buccolo. Thus, contrary to what most ethicists have believed, there is no fundamental clash between intuitionism and utilitarianism. The Methods of Ethics is a book on ethics first published in 1874 by the English philosopher Henry Sidgwick. Perhaps no region of Sidgwick’s work has been the subject ofgreater interpretive controversy than his epistemology. In ethics: Sidgwick. SIDGWICK, HENRY (1838—1900), English philosopher, was born at Skipton in Yorkshire, where his father, the Rev. Published by Good Press. 8 For … 5, 1880, pp. Diesen speziellen Charakter des Richtigen führt Sidgwick dann gleich auf Seite 25 im Kapitel „Ethische Urteile“ in Buch I der Methoden weiter aus. Go back to Henry Sidgwick's website. Year: 1959. 1901, containing emendations written just before his death), by common consent a major work, which made his reputation outside the university. [10], Sidgwick's meta-ethics involve an explicit defense of a non-naturalist form of moral realism. [13], According to John Rawls, Sidgwick's importance to modern ethics rests with two contributions: providing the most sophisticated defense available of utilitarianism in its classical form, and providing in his comparative methodology an exemplar for how ethics is to be researched as an academic subject. Send-to-Kindle or Email . [1] He was the Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1883 until his death, and is best known in philosophy for his utilitarian treatise The Methods of Ethics. File: PDF, 3.83 MB. … These, Sidgwick claims, turn out to be fully compatible with utilitarianism, and in fact are necessary to provide a rational basis for utilitarian theory. He retained his lectureship and in 1881 he was elected an honorary fellow. Especially noteworthy is his discussion of the various principles of what he calls common sense morality—i.e., the morality accepted, without systematic thought, by most people. Like “For we conceive it as the aim of a philosopher, as such, to do somewhat more than define and formulate the common normal opinions of mankind. His hope is that these three methods (duly clarified and systematized) will be mutually consistent, so that practical reason will be coherent and speak to us in one clear, unified voice. 2. The great nineteenth-century utilitarian Henry Sidgwick used this metaphor to present what he took to be a self-evident moral truth: the good of one individual is of no more importance than the good of any other. Sidgwick believed neither Bentham nor Mill had an adequate answer as to how the prescription that someone ought to sacrifice their own interest to the general interest could have any force, given they combined that prescription with the claim that everyone will in fact always pursue their own individual interest. According to Bart Schultz, despite Sidgwick's prominent role in institutionalizing parapsychology as a discipline, he had upon it an “overwhelmingly negative, destructive effect, akin to that of recent debunkers of parapsychology”; he and his Sidgwick Group associates became notable for exposing fraud mediums. Brought up in the Church of England, Sidgwick drifted away from orthodox Christianity, and as early as 1862 he described himself as a theist, independent from established religion. Welfare hedonism, as Sidgwick understood is, is a theory about “happiness”(Henry Sidgwick, “Utilitarianism”, now in Essays on Ethics and Method, edited by M. G. Singer, p. 5; see also “Mr. As Sidgwick sees it, one of the central issues of ethics is whether self-interest and duty always coincide. Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900) was an English utilitarian philosopher and economist, as well as one of the founders (and first President) of the Society for Psychical Research. [9] This reflects, and disputes, the rivalry then felt among British philosophers between the philosophies of utilitarianism and ethical intuitionism, which is illustrated, for example, by John Stuart Mill’s criticism of ethical intuitionism in the first chapter of his book Utilitarianism. One of the most influential of the Victorian philosophers, Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900) also made important contributions to fields such as economics, political theory, and classics. Noted moral and political philosopher John Rawls, writing in the Forward to the Hackett reprint of the 7th edition,[2] In 1875 he co-founded Newnham College, a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Reviewed by Anthony Skelton, University of Western Ontario. His insights about the relations between egoism and utilitarianism have stimulated much valuable research. Sidgwick argues that it cannot. Divine Justice and Ethical Experience: reflection on a page written by Sidgwick The only way duty and self-interest necessarily overlap is if God exists, and He makes sure through appropriate punishments and rewards that it is always in a person’s long-term self-interest to do what is ethical. In politics, he was a liberal, and became a Liberal Unionist (a party that later effectively merged with the Conservative party) in 1886. Spencer’s Ethical System”, in Mind, vol. Bart Schultz argues that this negative assessment is explained by the tastes of groups which would be influential at Cambridge in the years following Sidgwick's death: Wittgensteinian ordinary language philosophers, the remnants of British idealism, and, most importantly, the Bloomsbury Group. He wants to examine the nature and plausiblity of each of these methods. August 1900 in Cambridge) war ein englischer Philosoph und Utilitarist. In 1885, the religious test having been removed, his college once more elected him to a fellowship on the foundation. [citation needed] The rather depressing upshot, Sidgwick claims, is that there is a “fundamental contradiction” in our moral consciousness, a “dualism of practical reason.” Our ethical intuitions speaks to us in two conflicting voices, and there is no apparent way to resolve the discord. Preview . He believed the dualism of practical reason might be solved outside of philosophical ethics if it were shown, empirically, that the recommendations of rational egoism and utilitarianism coincided due to the reward of moral behaviour after death. The early workof Schneewind (1963), Rawls (1971, 1975), and Schultz (1992) played upthe dialectical side of Sidgwick’s approach and the ways inwhich he anticipated the Rawlsian account of the method of reflectiveequilibrium. His account of classical utilitarianism is unsurpassed. Early in 1900 he was forced by ill-health to resign his professorship, and died a few months later. Categories: Other Social Sciences\\Philosophy. Programma e presentazione . Egoism, or “Egoistic Hedonism,” claims that each individual should seek his or her own greatest happiness. While at Trinity, Sidgwick became a member of the Cambridge Apostles. This book represents the deepest and most systematic effort to analyze the difficulties of Mill's philosophy and to surmount them to reach a satisfying philosophical version of classic utilitarianism. Henry Sidgwick’s most popular book is The Methods of Ethics. His discussions of the general status of morality and of particular moral concepts are models of clarity and acumen. Though earlier utilitarians like William Paley, Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Mill had sketched versions of utilitarian ethics, Sidgwick was the first theorist to develop the theory in detail and to investigate how it relates both to other popular ethical theories and to conventional morality. Henry Sidgwick facts: The English philosopher and moralist Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900) was the author of The Methods of Ethics, which has been described as the "best treatise on moral theory that has ever been written." And his way of framing moral problems, by asking about the relations between commonsense beliefs and the best available theories, has set much of the agenda for twentieth-century ethics.”[4], "Henry Sidgwick, 1838-1900" at The History of Economic Thought Website, Peter Singer - Interview at NormativeEthics.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Methods_of_Ethics&oldid=982196562, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 6 October 2020, at 18:18. His focus is primarily on detailed exposition of commonsense morality; he does not attempt to defend any particular theory of ethics, including utilitarianism, which he explicitly endorses in other works and speaks positively of in many passages in the Methods. Sidgwick would connect his concerns with parapsychology to his research in ethics. References to other ethical writings of Sidgwick's are to the collection of his Essays on Ethics and Method, ed. 6 Sidgwick, Henry, The Methods of Ethics, 7th edn. Henry Sidgwick was born at Skipton in Yorkshire, where his father, the Reverend W. Sidgwick (died 1841), was headmaster of the local grammar school, Ermysted's Grammar School. As Sidgwick scholar J. says Methods of Ethics "is the clearest and most accessible formulation of ... 'the classical utilitarian doctrine'". Mill's Principles of Political Economy, incorporating the insights of Jevons. PUBLICATION done with the consent of the every author . 11 Henry Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics, 1981, 5. University of Catania, Italy. Henry Sidgwick (* 31. In 1859, he was senior classic, 33rd wrangler, chancellor's medallist and Craven scholar. Ethical intuitions, such as those argued for by philosophers such as William Whewell, could, according to Sidgwick, provide the missing force for such normative claims. Like Aristotle, Sidgwick believed that systematic reflection on ethics should begin with the way ordinary people think about moral behavior—what he calls “commonsense morality.” His main goal in the Methods is to offer a systematic and precise “examination, at once expository and critical, of the different methods of obtaining reasoned convictions as to what ought to be done which are found—either explicit or implicit—in the moral consciousness of mankind generally” (Methods, p. vii). The cross reference links are not implemented yet, and links to Bentham and Mill texts on the site are not yet implemented. Sidgwick summarizes his position in ethics as utilitarianism “on an Intuitional basis”. Ethical judgments, he held, are objective truths that we can know by reason. The source of the Text. However, Sidgwick’s goal is not simply exposition; he also wants to clarify, systematize, and improve ordinary morality by noting points where it is vague, undeveloped, or inharmonious, and then suggesting ways that these problems can be fixed. Sidgwick claims that there are three general methods of making value choices that are commonly used in ordinary morality: intuitionism, egoism, and utilitarianism. Methods of Ethics Henry Sidgwick: The State of the Text. [5] Sidgwick, who died an agnostic,[8] is buried in Terling All Saints Churchyard, Terling, Essex, with his wife. 1 likes. HENRY SIDGWICK. § 1. what one has most reason to do) is what will maximize one's own net amount of pleasure in the long run. A 2004 biography of Sidgwick by Bart Schultz sought to establish that Sidgwick was a lifelong homosexual, but it is unknown whether he ever consummated his inclinations. Main Henry Sidgwick, And Later Utilitarian Political Philosophy. Contemporary ethicists Derek Parfit and Peter Singer have acknowledged Sidgwick as a major influence on their thought. In 1875, he was appointed praelector on moral and political philosophy at Trinity, and in 1883 he was elected Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy. W. Sidgwick (d. 1841), was headmaster of the grammar-school, on the 3Ist of May 1838. Inconsidering ‘enlightened self-interest’ as supplying a primafacie tenable principle for the systematisati… He also took in promoting the higher education of women. In the same year, deciding that he could no longer in good conscience declare himself a member of the Church of England, he resigned his fellowship. When, in 1880, the North Hall was added, Sidgwick lived there for two years. Smart labels him an act utilitarian. The ethical axioms he took to be self-evident provide a foundation for utilitarianism. Fast and free shipping free returns cash on delivery available on eligible purchase. This interest, combined with his personal struggles with religious belief, motivated his gathering of young colleagues interested in assessing the empirical evidence for paranormal or miraculous phenomena. [22] One such incident was the exposure of the fraud of Eusapia Palladino.[23][24]. This hope, he argues, can only partially be satisfied. The fundamental principle of egoistic hedonism is that what one ought to do (i.e. Henry Sidgwick (/ˈsɪdʒwɪk/; 31 May 1838 – 28 August 1900) was an English utilitarian philosopher and economist. "Henry Sidgwick's book, Methods of Ethics, was published in 1874, a year after the death of John Stuart Mill. Henry Sidgwick has gone down in the history of philosophy as both the great, classical utilitarian moral theorist who authored The Methods of Ethics, and an outstanding exemplar of intellectual honesty and integrity, one whose personal virtues were inseparable from his philosophical strengths and method. Intuitionism is the view that we can see straight off that some acts are right or wrong, and can grasp self-evident and unconditionally binding moral rules. University of Catania – Italy, Contains Sidgwick's "Methods of Ethics", modified for easier reading, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Sidgwick&oldid=992048872, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 3 December 2020, at 05:40.

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