Utilitarianism - Softcover

Mill, John Stuart

3.68

23,224 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0915144417 ISBN 13: 9780915144419

Publisher: Hackett Publishing Co, Inc, 1979

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There are few circumstances among those which make up the present condition of human knowledge, more unlike what might have been expected, or more significant of the backward state in which speculation on the most important subjects still lingers, than the little progress which has been made in the decision of the controversy respecting the criterion of right and wrong. From the dawn of philosophy, the question concerning the summum bonum, or, what is the same thing, concerning the foundation of morality, has been accounted the main problem in speculative thought, has occupied the most gifted intellects, and divided them into sects and schools, carrying on a vigorous warfare against one another. And after more than two thousand years the same discussions continue, philosophers are still ranged under the same contending banners, and neither thinkers nor mankind at large seem nearer to being unanimous on the subject, than when the youth Socrates listened to the old Protagoras, and asserted (if Plato's dialogue be grounded on a real conversation) the theory of utilitarianism against the popular morality of the so-called sophist.

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Review:

Adding the selections from the Speech on Capital Punishment is an excellent idea. --Mark Migotti, University of Calgary

Book Description:

Reissued in its corrected 1864 second edition, this work by the philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806–73) argues for a utilitarian theory of morality, refining Bentham's 'greatest happiness' principle and defending it from common criticisms. Mill's key discussion on the topic, it remains a fundamental text in ethics.

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