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CLASSICAL UTILITARIANISM FROM
HUME TO MILL
This book presents a new and controversial analysis of the idea of utility, its role
in the foundation of morality, and its connection with justice and liberty, from
Hume’s Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals to . Mill’s On Liberty and
Utilitarianism.
The book is situated within the philosophical context of the earlier Epicurean
tradition with its emphasis on pleasure, pain and utility on which the main
figures discussed in this book – Hume, Smith, Helvétius, Bentham, Paley, and
. Mill – drew. The author defines a classical utilitarian tradition, which in turn
is defended as a coherent context for understanding important arguments in
moral and political philosophy concerned with justice, rights, liberty, individu-
ality, equality, and democracy.
Classical Utilitarianism from Hume to Mill utilizes a number of disciplines, such as
moral and political philosophy, political and social theory, intellectual history, the
history of philosophy, and the history of economic thought to present a unique
study in two parts. Part I includes chapters on such topics as the major figures in
the Scottish and French Enlightenments, Smith and Bentham on the
entrepreneur, the religious utilitarianism of Paley, and Mill’s critique of Carlyle
and the defence of Bentham. Part II defends classical utilitarianism against a
number mon contemporary criticisms concerned with the punishment of
the innocent, the sacrifice of some for the happiness of others, democratic
despotism or majority tyranny, and the impoverished state of negative liberty.
Frederick Rosen is Professor of the History of Political Thought at University
College London. He has served as General Editor of The Collected Works of Jeremy
Bentham, Director of the Bentham Project, and Director of the Centre for
Politics, Law and Society at UCL. Among his books are Jeremy Bentham and
Representative Democracy