A History of English Utilitarianism

383 pp. "A comprehensive account of the "greatest happiness" doctrine in English philosophy. "Utilitarianism" is the term first applied by Jeremy Bentham to the system of moral philosophy that sets the highest values on those acts which bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. A century later Henry Sidgwick, its last important exponent, called it "universalistic hedonism." Tracing the roots of utilitarian ethics to the theological writings of Bishop Cumberland, Gay, Brown, Tucker, and Paley, this book weighs the impact of such thinkers as Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume, and Hartley, as well as the contributions of the social philosophers--Bentham, Mill, Spencer, and Sidgwick."