In this landmark volume, Samuel Hollander presents a fresh and compelling history of moral philosophy from Locke to John Stuart Mill, showing that a ‘moral sense’ can actually be considered compatible with utilitarianism. The book also explores the link between utilitarianism and distributive justice. Hollander engages in close textual exegesis of the works relating to individual authors, while never losing sight of the intellectual relationships between them. Tying together the greatest of the British moral philosophers, this volume reveals an unexpected unity of eighteenth and nineteenth century ethical doctrine at both the individual and social level. Essential reading for advanced students and researchers of the history of economic thought, political economy, history of ethics, history of political thought and intellectual history.

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First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Adopting a view of utilitarian ethics in which motivation in the public interest takes on greater weight than is generally appreciated, this book explores the extent to which the philosophy of Immanuel Kant is consistent with this nuanced version of utilitarianism. Kant’s requirement that full ethical merit needs an agent to act purely ‘from duty’ to forward ‘the universal end of happiness’ rather than from a personal inclination to achieve that end clearly distinguishes his position from the version of utilitarian ethics adopted here. But this book also demonstrates, by reference to his formal ethical works and his lectures on ethics and anthropology, Kant’s approval of a secondary category of conduct – conduct ‘in conformity with’ duty – entailing other-regarding or ‘sympathetic’ motivation to advance general happiness, differing from the utilitarian position only in its meriting a qualified degree of ethical credit. After comparing Kant with eighteenth-century utilitarian writers from Locke to Smith, and also with Bentham and Malthus, the book evaluates reactions to Kant by J.S. Mill and Karl Marx and proposes Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) as a ‘precursor’ for maintaining a ‘Kantian’ doctrine of conduct ‘from duty’ and for other shared features. In terms of public policy, the work demonstrates Kant’s justification of poor relief and reduced inequality, his proposal for a state education plan and his opposition to paternalism. This book provides essential reading for academic specialists and students concerned with the interface of political economy and ethics, as well as the history of economic thought, history of political thought and intellectual history.

Published in 1886, this book is a history of ethics from the early Greeks through to nineteenth-century schools of thought.

Ever since the time of his early interpreters, beginning with David Hume, Adam Smith’s theory of value has been the subject of confusion and misunderstanding – including a controversy which still rages over whether Smith held a labour theory of value, and, if so, whether he held to it throughout Wealth of Nations, or if it was confined to the “Early and Rude State”? This book provides a close reading of Smith’s key text, and also incorporates material from the other parts of Smith’s oeuvre, especially from The Theory of Moral Sentiments, to yield original and important insights into Smith’s theory of value. The book operates on the assumption that Smith is proposing relatively simple ideas about price and takes a conventional view that simple Supply and Demand models can illuminate, clearly and consistently with his text, his theory of price. Combining these elements, the book argues that, contra Marx, Smith does not have a labour theory of value at all, understood as a theory of the determination of the relative price structure. Instead, Smith is placed squarely in the supply and demand, general equilibrium framework and the claim that he is part of a “surplus tradition”, which receives its highest treatment in the work of Piero Sraffa, is refuted. This book will be of particular interest to Adam Smith specialists, historians of economic thought, and research economists who have an interest in Smith.

Studies the influential tradition of 'theological utilitarianism' in the eighteenth century through the lens of William Paley's life and thought.

Arthur Holmes addresses the questions: What is good? What is right? How can we know? In this second edition, he also surveys a variety of approaches to ethics, including cultural relativism, emotivism, ethical egoism and utilitarianism—all with an acknowledgment of the new postmodern environment.