1st Edition
A History of Utilitarian Ethics Studies in Private Motivation and Distributive Justice, 1700-1875
In this landmark volume, Samuel Hollander presents a fresh and compelling history of moral philosophy from Locke to John Stuart Mill, showing that a ‘moral sense’ can actually be considered compatible with utilitarianism. The book also explores the link between utilitarianism and distributive justice.
Hollander engages in close textual exegesis of the works relating to individual authors, while never losing sight of the intellectual relationships between them. Tying together the greatest of the British moral philosophers, this volume reveals an unexpected unity of eighteenth and nineteenth century ethical doctrine at both the individual and social level.
Essential reading for advanced students and researchers of the history of economic thought, political economy, history of ethics, history of political thought and intellectual history.
Contents
PART I: JOHN LOCKE
Chapter 1: John Locke, Utilitarian Ethics and the Moral Sense
PART II: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MORAL-SENSE LITERATURE
Chapter 2: Lord Shaftesbury, Utilitarian Ethics and the Moral Sense
Chapter 3: Two Shaftesbury Critics: Bernard Mandeville and John Brown
Chapter 4: Francis Hutcheson and the Hutcheson-Locke Relationship
Chapter 5: David Hume, Utilitarian Ethics, the Moral Sense and Distributive Justice
Chapter 6: C.A.Helvétius and David Hartley: Utilitarian Ethics and the Moral Sense
PART III: ADAM SMITH
Chapter 7: Utilitarian Ethics in The Theory Of Moral Sentiments
Chapter 8: Utilitarian Ethics and Distributive Justice in The Wealth Of Nations
PART IV: JEREMY BENTHAM
Chapter 9: Bentham, Utilitarian Ethics and Distributive Justice
Chapter 10: Bentham in Relation To Locke and the Eighteenth-Century Literature
PART V: THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS
Chapter 11: Malthus and the Utilitarians
Chapter 12: Malthus, Distributive Justice and the Equality Issue
PART VI: JOHN STUART MILL
Chapter 13: Mill, Distributive Justice and Reform
Chapter 14: Mill, Ethical Progress and Personal Liberty
Chapter 15: Mill and The Moral Sense: The Return to Bentham (And Hutcheson)
Biography
Samuel Hollander is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, Canada, and an Officer in the Order of Canada.
"Hollander's latest book offers a lively, sharp and authoritative appraisal of the development of utilitarian thought from the early eighteenth century to the late nineteenth century that discounts many prevailing interpretations...The result is a veritable feast that bears all the hallmarks of rigorous scholarship that historians have come to expect from the author. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this well-told account of ethical utilitarianism from John Locke to John Stuart Mill." - Mark Donoghue, History of Economics Review
"The value of this book...is in emphasizing the commonalities across different perspectives, and in so doing, offering a rich and generous history of utilitarian moral thought." - Tsin Yen Koh, Utilitas
