Introduction to Utilitarianism

Susanna Newcome (1685-1763) was an eighteenth-century philosopher and theologian who lived and worked in England. Her most significant work, An Enquiry into the Evidence of the Christian Religion, contains an early formulation of utilitarian thought. In this short book, Newcome synthesizes contemporary developments in natural theology and moral psychology to offer a utilitarian account of the nature of ethics and our moral duties.Life and Works Newcome (née Squire) was born in 1685 in the small Wiltshire village of Durnford, where her father was a vicar.

The original text contained 10 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

January 29th, 2023

Source:

https://utilitarianism.net/utilitarian-thinker/susanna-newcome

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Jeremy Bentham was born in 1748 to a wealthy family. A child prodigy, his father sent him to study at Queen’s College, Oxford University, aged 12. Although he never practiced, Bentham trained as a lawyer and wrote extensively on law and legal reform. He died in 1832 at the age of 84 and requested his body and head to be preserved for scientific research. They are currently on display at University College London.

The original text contained 9 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

January 29th, 2023

Source:

https://utilitarianism.net/utilitarian-thinker/jeremy-bentham

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William Thompson (1775–1833) was a philosopher, political economist, and social reformer working during the early nineteenth century. He and his sometimes co-author Anna Doyle Wheeler made significant, though under-appreciated, contributions to the utilitarian, socialist, and feminist philosophical traditions.1 Life William Thompson was a landowner from Cork, Ireland with a reputation for eccentricity. He was often disparaged as “the Red Republican”—a reference to both the red flags of the Jacobins of the French Revolution and contemporaneous attempts at revolution against the British by the Irish Republicans.

The original text contained 9 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

January 29th, 2023

Source:

https://utilitarianism.net/utilitarian-thinker/william-thompson

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John Stuart Mill was born in 1806, in London. He was the son of James Mill, a friend of Jeremy Bentham’s who shared many of his principles. James intended that his son carry on the radical utilitarian empiricist tradition, and this was reflected in his upbringing: John learned Greek and arithmetic at 3, and helped to edit his father’s book (the History of India) at 11. Mill was influenced by the thought of both Jeremy Bentham and political economist David Ricardo (another friend of his father’s), and himself committed to utilitarianism after reading Bentham’s Traités de Legislation.

The original text contained 11 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

January 29th, 2023

Source:

https://utilitarianism.net/utilitarian-thinker/john-stuart-mill

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Harriet Taylor Mill (née Hardy) was born in 1807 in Walworth, South London, as the daughter of a midwife. She was educated at home and became interested in poetry and writing at a young age. She married John Taylor, a pharmacist, aged 18. Even before she met John Stuart Mill, she was writing extensively on topics such as women’s rights (particularly in marriage, domestic violence and education), politics, ethics and religious toleration.

The original text contained 8 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

January 29th, 2023

Source:

https://utilitarianism.net/utilitarian-thinker/harriet-taylor-mill

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Sidgwick was born in 1838 to a wealthy family in Yorkshire, England. He studied at Cambridge as an undergraduate, where he stayed for the rest of his life. While he is best known as a moral philosopher, he was also a political economist, epistemologist, classicist, theologist, educator, political theorist and parapsychologist (studying psychic phenomena, including telepathy and survival after death). At Cambridge, Sidgwick became a part of “the Apostles”: a secret society whose members discussed topics including ethics, truth and God.

The original text contained 7 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

January 29th, 2023

Source:

https://utilitarianism.net/utilitarian-thinker/henry-sidgwick

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Richard M. Hare (1919 - 2002) is usually acknowledged to be one of the major moral thinkers of the 20th century. After being a Japanese prisoner of war for most of World War II, he completed his education at Oxford, later joining the faculty and becoming a professor. In 1983 he moved to the University of Florida but still kept his ties with Oxford. He had many students, including Peter Singer.

The original text contained 7 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

January 29th, 2023

Source:

https://utilitarianism.net/utilitarian-thinker/richard-hare

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Singer was born in 1946, Melbourne, Australia, to an Austrian Jewish family that emigrated from Austria to escape persecution by the Nazis. He studied law, history and philosophy at the University of Melbourne, and majored in philosophy. He later did a B.Phil at Oxford University, where he associated with a vegetarian student group and became a vegetarian himself. Around this time he wrote Animal Liberation (1975), which has been called the “bible” of the animal liberation movement.

The original text contained 9 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

January 29th, 2023

Source:

https://utilitarianism.net/utilitarian-thinker/peter-singer

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In this summary of her 2016 book The Feeling of Value, Sharon Hewitt Rawlette defends “analytic hedonism”. From our direct acquaintance with the intrinsic value of good and bad experiential states, we can build an entire ethical system that is fully grounded in observable fact.

The original text contained 26 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

July 11th, 2023

Source:

https://utilitarianism.net/guest-essays/precis-of-the-feeling-of-value

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This article analyses the extent to which elements of utilitarianism can be found within (i) the Early Buddhist tradition, and (ii) classical Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism. It then explores a Buddhist perspective on well-being, and concludes by comparing Engaged Buddhism to effective altruism.

The original text contained 61 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

January 29th, 2023

Source:

https://utilitarianism.net/guest-essays/buddhism-and-utilitarianism

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.