| Western Philosophy 19th-century philosophy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name | Henry Sidgwick |
| Birth | May 31, 1838 |
| Death | August 28, 1900 (aged 62) |
| School/tradition | Utilitarianism |
| Main interests | Ethics, Politics |
| Notable ideas | Ethical Hedonism |
| Influenced by | Jeremy Bentham |
| Influenced | Peter Singer R M Hare |
Henry Sidgwick (May 31, 1838–August 28, 1900) was an English philosopher. In the 18th century the philosophies of The Enlightenment began to have a dramatic effect the landmark works of philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Jean-Jacques Events 1279 BC - Rameses II (The Great (19th dynasty becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Year 1838 ( MDCCCXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 475 - The Roman General Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his Capital Year 1900 ( MCM) was an exceptional Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions Jeremy Bentham ( IPA: or) (15 February 1748&ndash6 June 1832 was an English Jurist, Philosopher, and legal and Social reformer Peter Albert David Singer (born July 6, 1946 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian philosopher. Richard Mervyn Hare ( 21 March 1919 &ndash 29 January 2002) was an English moral philosopher who held the post of White's Events 1279 BC - Rameses II (The Great (19th dynasty becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Year 1838 ( MDCCCXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 475 - The Roman General Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his Capital Year 1900 ( MCM) was an exceptional Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language
Contents |
Biography
He was born at Skipton in Yorkshire, where his father, the Reverend W. Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a Civil parish and historic Market town in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, Yorkshire is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Sidgwick (d. 1841), was headmaster of the local grammar school, Ermysted's Grammar School. A grammar school is one of several different types of School in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries Ermysted's Grammar School is a LEA -funded selective boys' Grammar School in Skipton, North Yorkshire teaching over 700 pupils Henry himself 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. Rugby School, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, is a Co-educational Boarding school and one of the oldest public schools Edward White Benson ( July 14 1829 &ndash October 11 1896) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1882 until his death The Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. While at Trinity, Sidgwick became a member of the Cambridge Apostles. The Cambridge Apostles, also known as the Cambridge Conversazione Society, is an elite intellectual Secret society at the University of Cambridge founded In 1859 he was senior classic, 33rd wrangler, chancellor's medallist and Craven scholar. Year 1859 ( MDCCCLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common At the University of Cambridge, a Wrangler is a student who has completed the third year (called Part II) of the Mathematical Tripos with First-class In the same year he was elected to a fellowship at Trinity, and soon afterwards became a lecturer in classics there, a post he held for ten years.
In 1869, he exchanged his lectureship for one in moral philosophy, a subject to which he had been turning his attention. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life 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. The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican He retained his lectureship, and in 1881 was elected an honorary fellow. In 1874 he published The Methods of Ethics (6th ed. 1901, containing emendations written just before his death), by common consent a major work, which made his reputation outside the university. John Rawls called it the "first truly academic work in moral theory, modern both method and spirit. John Rawls ( February 21, 1921 &ndash November 24, 2002) was an American Philosopher, a Professor of "[1]
In 1875, he was appointed praelector on moral and political philosophy at Trinity, and in 1883 he was elected Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy. A praelector is a traditional role at the colleges of either the Universities of Cambridge or Oxford. The Knightbridge Professorship of Philosophy is the senior professorship in philosophy at the University of Cambridge. In 1885, the religious test having been removed, his college once more elected him to a fellowship on the foundation.
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. He was a member of the General Board of Studies from its foundation in 1882 till 1899; he was also a member of the Council of the Senate of the Indian Civil Service Board and the Local Examinations and Lectures Syndicate, and chairman of the Special Board for Moral Science. The Indian Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym ICS, originated as the elite Civil service of the Indian Government under British colonial
Works
| The Utilitarianism series, part of the Politics series |
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Forms Predecessors Key concepts Problems See Also |
| Portal:Politics |
He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research, and was a member of the Metaphysical Society. Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions This is an incomplete list of advocates of Utilitarianism. John Austin Jeremy Bentham Richard Brandt Jeremy Bentham ( IPA: or) (15 February 1748&ndash6 June 1832 was an English Jurist, Philosopher, and legal and Social reformer John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Peter Albert David Singer (born July 6, 1946 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian philosopher. Preference utilitarianism is quite probably the most popular form of Utilitarianism in contemporary philosophy Rule utilitarianism is a form of Utilitarianism which states that moral actions are those which conform to the rules which lead to the greatest good or that "the rightness Act utilitarianism is a Utilitarian theory of Ethics which states that the morally right action is the one which produces the greatest amount of happiness for the Two-level utilitarianism is a utilitarian theory of Ethics developed by R All proponents of Utilitarianism believe that the quality of conscious experience is important indeed it is the basis of their consequentialist approach to Ethics All proponents of Utilitarianism believe that the quality of conscious experience is important indeed it is the basis of their consequentialist approach to Ethics Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness Animal welfare refers to the viewpoint that it is morally acceptable for humans to use nonhuman animals for food in animal research, as clothing and in entertainment Abolitionism is a Bioethical school and movement which proposes the use of Biotechnology to maximize Happiness and minimize Suffering while Hedonism is the Philosophy that Pleasure is of ultimate importance, the most important pursuit Enlightened self-interest is a philosophy in Ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy William Godwin ( 3 March 1756 &ndash 7 April 1836) was an English journalist political philosopher and Novelist Pain, in the sense of physical pain, is a typical sensory experience that may be described as the unpleasant awareness of a noxious stimulus or bodily harm Suffering, or pain, is an individual's basic Affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm Pleasure is commonly conceptualized as a positive experience Happiness, Entertainment, Enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria, but is hard In Economics, utility is a measure of the relative satisfaction from or desirability of Consumption of various Goods and services. Happiness is an Emotion associated with feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to Bliss and intense Joy. Eudaimonia ( Greek:) is a classical Greek word commonly translated as ' Happiness ' Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action The felicific calculus is an Algorithm formulated by utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham for calculating the degree or amount of Pleasure The mere addition paradox is a problem in Ethics, identified by Derek Parfit, and appearing in his book Reasons and Persons. The paradox of Hedonism, also called the pleasure paradox, is the idea in the study of Ethics which points out that Pleasure and Happiness The utility monster is a Thought experiment in the study of Ethics. Rational choice theory, also known as rational action theory, is a framework for understanding and often formally modeling social and economic behavior Game theory is a branch of Applied mathematics that is used in the Social sciences (most notably Economics) Biology, Engineering, Social choice theory studies voting rules that govern and describe how individual preferences are aggregated to form a collective preference Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The Society for Psychical Research ( SPR) is a Non-profit organization which started in the United Kingdom and was later imitated in other countries The Metaphysical Society was a British society founded in 1869 by James Knowles. Prominently, he took in promoting the higher education of women. Female education is a catch-all term for a complex of issues and debates surrounding education ( Primary education, Secondary education, Tertiary education He helped to start the higher local examinations for women, and the lectures held at Cambridge in preparation for these. It was at his suggestion and with his help that Miss Clough opened a house of residence for students, which developed into Newnham College, Cambridge. Newnham College is a Women's college in the University of Cambridge. When, in 1880, the North Hall was added, Sidgwick, who in 1876 had married Eleanor Mildred Balfour (sister of A. J. Balfour), lived there for two years. Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick, née Balfour (1845-1936 was an activist for the higher education of women Principal of Newnham College and a leading figure in the Arthur James Balfour 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC (25 July 1848 - 19 March 1930 was a British Conservative politician and After Miss Clough's death in 1892 Mrs Sidgwick became principal of the college, and she and her husband lived there for the rest of his life. During this whole period Sidgwick took the deepest interest in the welfare of the college. In politics he was a Liberal, and became a Liberal Unionist (a party that later effectively merged with the Tory party) in 1886. The Liberal Unionists were a British political party that split away from the Liberals in 1886 and had effectively merged with the Conservatives by the The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Early in 1900 he was forced by ill-health to resign his professorship, and died a few months later.
Sidgwick was a famous teacher. He treated his pupils as fellow students. He was deeply interested in psychical phenomena, but his energies were primarily devoted to the study of religion and philosophy. Brought up in the Church of England, he drifted away from orthodox Christianity, and as early as 1862 he described himself as a theist. Theism, in its most inclusive usage is the belief in at least one Deity. For the rest of his life, though 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.
In political economy he was a Utilitarian on the lines of John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham; his work was the careful investigation of first principles and the investigation of ambiguities rather than constructive. Political economy originally was the term for studying production buying and selling and their relations with law custom and government Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Jeremy Bentham ( IPA: or) (15 February 1748&ndash6 June 1832 was an English Jurist, Philosopher, and legal and Social reformer In philosophy he devoted himself to ethics, and especially to the examination of the ultimate intuitive principles of conduct and the problem of free will. He adopted a position which may be described as ethical hedonism, according to which the criterion of goodness in any given action is that it produces the greatest possible amount of pleasure. This hedonism, however, is not confined to the self (egoistic), but involves a due regard to the pleasure of others, and is, therefore, distinguished further as universalistic. Lastly, Sidgwick returns to the principle that no man should act so as to destroy his own happiness.
Bibliography
by Sidgwick
- The Methods of Ethics. London, 1874, 7th ed. 1907.
- "The Theory of Evolution in its application to Practice", in Mind, Volume I, Number 1 (January 1876), 52–67
- Principles of Political Economy. Mind is a well-respected British journal currently published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Mind Association, which deals with Philosophy London, 1883, 3rd ed. 1901.
- Scope and Method of Economic Science. 1885.
- Outlines of the History of Ethics. 1886, 5th ed. 1902 (enlarged from his article ethics in the Encyclopædia Britannica). The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc
- "The Philosophy of Common Sense", in Mind, New Series, Volume IV, Number 14 (April 1895), 145–158. Mind is a well-respected British journal currently published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Mind Association, which deals with Philosophy
- The Elements of Politics. London, 1891, 4th ed. 1919.
- Practical Ethics. London, 1898, 2nd ed. 1909.
- Philosophy; its Scope and Relations. London, 1902.
- Lectures on the Ethics of T. H. Green, Mr Herbert Spencer and J. Martineau. 1902.
- The Development of European Polity. 1903.
- Miscellaneous Essays and Addresses. 1904.
- Lectures on the Philosophy of Kant. 1905.
about Sidgwick
- Schultz, Bart. Henry Sidgwick: Eye of the Universe. An Intellectual Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
- Schultz, Bart. Henry Sidgwick. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. October 5, 2004.
External links
- Henry Sidgwick. Comprehensive list of online writings by and about Sidgwick.
- Henry Sidgwick Website. In English and French.
References
- ^ Rawls, J. 1980. 'Kantian Constructivism in Moral Theory'. In: Journal of Philosophy 77 (1980).
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sidgwick, Henry |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | English philosopher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 31, 1838 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Skipton, Yorkshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 28, 1900 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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