5 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Bentham's Introduction (1789) is the foundational text of utilitarian ethics, introducing the principle of utility and the felicific calculus.
Henry Sidgwick was a Victorian British philosopher who produced in The Methods of Ethics the most rigorous systematic treatment of utilitarian moral philosophy.
Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics (1874) is the most rigorous systematic treatment of utilitarian moral philosophy, identifying three methods of ethics and the irresolvable dualism of practical reason.
Mill's Utilitarianism (1863) is the classic short defense of utilitarian ethics, introducing qualitative distinctions between pleasures and grounding morality in the principle of utility.
William Godwin was a British political philosopher and novelist who articulated the first systematic defense of anarchism based on utilitarian rationalism.