1、Sidgwicks Ethics and Victorian Moral Philosophy BY J. B. SCHNEEWIND OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS -iii- OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the Universitys objective of excellence in research,
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3、Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York Oxford University Press 1977 The moral rights of the author have been assert
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6、ver and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ISBN 0-19-824552-1 Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Short Run Books Kings Lynn Oxford Scholarly Classics This new series brings together a number of great academic works from the archives of Oxford University Press. Re
7、issued in Spring 2000 in a uniform series design, Oxford Scholarly Classics will enable libraries, scholars and students to gain fresh access to some of the finest scholarship of the last century. -iv- Preface HENRY SIDGWICKS Methods of Ethics is an acknowledged masterpiece of moral philosophy. It i
8、s also the most important product of nineteenth-century British ethics and the main key to a full understanding of it. When I first began to study it, I found that there were no historical studies of it at all, and only one reasonably comprehensive recent philosophical discussion. This book is the r
9、esult of my efforts to find answers to questions about the Methods which the existing literature did not supply. My main aims are philosophical. I try to show how Sidgwicks arguments and conclusions represent rational developments of the work of his predecessors, and to bring out the nature and stru
10、cture of the reasoning underlying his own position. But although the book is mainly concerned with philosophical argument, it is a historical rather than a critical study. This is not because Sidgwicks work is of merely historical interest or because I can find nothing in the work to criticize. It i
11、s because it seemed necessary, before criticizing Sidgwick, to have a sound historical grasp of the problems he was trying to solve as well as a clear understanding of the solutions he offered. Chapter 1 of this book traces Sidgwicks intellectual development, and Chapters 2 through 5 sketch the hist
12、ory of British ethics from the time of Reid and Bentham to the time when the Methods was being elaborated. While I believe that this historical material sheds considerable light on Sidgwicks thought, I know that the details will not interest everyone. Hence I have tried to make the commentary on the
13、 Methods which occupies Part II relatively independent of the earlier chapters. I have not tried to give a thorough critique of Sidgwick. To do so would require developing a comprehensive alternative to his own position; and even if I had one, there would not be room to present it here. The interpre
14、tation of the Methods to which I have been led differs in many respects from that which seems to prevail in the literature. In particular, I find running through it a far -vii- more closely unified line of argument than is usually supposed. A comment Sidgwick makes about Aristotle Ethics applies equ
15、ally well to his own. On the whole, he says, there is probably no treatise so masterly . . . and containing so much close and valid thought that yet leaves on the readers mind an impression of dispersive and incomplete work. ( Hist. p. 70.) An impression of dispersion and incompleteness is often lef
16、t by the Methods. If the interpretation I offer is correct, the impression is profoundly mistaken. My debts to the existing literature on Sidgwick are not less because of my disagreements with it. In general I have avoided explicit discussion of earlier interpretations. In one case this was not enti
17、rely possible; and so I should make it clear that, despite the many points at which I take issue with C. D. Broads reading of Sidgwick, I owe a great deal to his pioneering analysis in Five Types of Ethical Theory. In the course of writing this book I have received aid and encouragement from many in
18、stitutions and people. The University of Pittsburgh allowed me a sabbatical leave in 1973-4, during which time a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies greatly facilitated my study of the Sidgwick manuscripts. Generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities made it poss
19、ible for me to continue to consult the manuscripts and the necessary books while I was working out the final form of my own book. I am most grateful to them. I owe a more personal debt to my colleagues in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, who since 1963 have allowed me to
20、 wander through the by-ways of nineteenth-century thought and have waited patiently for me to emerge with something useful. Without their support and encouragement I doubt if I should have been able to write this book. I hope they will not be disappointed by it. I am extremely thankful for the assis
21、tance I have been given at many different libraries: at the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Mr. Trevor Kaye and others were extraordinarily helpful; at the Balliol College Library, the Bodleian Library, the British Museum, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Dr. Williamss Library,
22、the Harvard University Library, and the Houghton Library at Harvard, the Princeton -viii- University Library, and the University of Pittsburgh Library; at the Manchester College Library, Oxford, where Mrs. Katherine Swift located some important missing papers; and once again at the London Library, w
23、here the efficient and knowledgeable staff provided indispensable aid. Many others have also helped my search for Sidgwick material. I should like to thank those who told me about holdings or the absence of holdings at the University of Bristol, the Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Corpus Chris
24、ti College, Oxford, Girton College, Newnham College, the New York Public Library, the Society for Psychical Research, the Tennyson Research Centre, the University of London Senate House Library, and the Yale University Library. To the others who answered inquiries I am also grateful: Mr. William Arm
25、strong of Sidgwick and Jackson, Mrs. Ann Baer, the Earl of Balfour, T. M. Farmiloe of Macmillan and Co., the Earl of Gainsborough, A. J. P. Kenny, David Lyons, Lady Kathleen Oldfield, Herbert M. Schueller, and P. G. Scott. For permission to publish manuscript material, I am grateful to the Master an
26、d Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, to the Master and Fellows of Balliol College, and to Dr. Janine Dakyns. I should also like to thank Mrs. Peggy Dakyns for her generous hospitality while I was using the Dakyns letters. Some of the material in Chapters 3 and 5 is derived from earlier publicati
27、ons of mine, in the American Philosophical Quarterly, Supplementary Monographs (1, 1968), in The Monist (vol. 58, no. 3), and in the “Introduction“ to Mills Ethical Writings ( Collier Books, Macmillan, 1965). I wish to thank the respective editors and publishers for permission to use this material.
28、Part of Chapter 5 comes from a paper read at the Mill Centenary Conference in May 1973 at the University of Toronto, where I enjoyed the hospitality of John and Ann Robson and learned much from the general discussion. Annette Baier, Kurt Baier, and John Cooper discussed the papers used in Chapters 3
29、 and 5 with me, much to my benefit. I have had helpful conversations on various topics related to this book with Alan Donagan, Dana Scott, Wilfrid Sellars, and Wayne Sumner. W. K. Frankena and Bernard Williams read an early version of material now in Chapters 10 and 13, -ix- and their comments were
30、very useful. Annette Baier and John Cooper read nearly the whole of the manuscript and made a large number of excellent suggestions for its improvement. I am very grateful to them. Derek Parfit read Chapter 1 and the whole of Part II at various stages of their development. The many hours I have spen
31、t going over the material with him have been of considerable value to me, and his unflagging interest and encouragement have meant more than I can say. I should promptly add that my stubbornness in rejecting much of the good advice these friends have offered leaves me alone responsible for the defic
32、iencies, errors, and omissions which remain. Finally I should like to thank Richard Creath, Barbara Hill, and Gail Horenstein for their assistance in bibliographical matters, and Ruth Durst, Collie Henderson, and Sarah Weisberg for their admirable typing of a difficult manuscript. Pittsburgh and Lon
33、don J. B. SCHNEEWIND August 1975 -x- Contents Texts and References xv Introduction 1 PART I: TOWARDS THE METHODS OF ETHICS 1. The Development of Sidgwicks Thought 13 i. Sidgwicks Life 13 ii. Religion in the 1860s 17 iii. Sidgwicks Religious Development 21 iv. Sidgwicks Writings on Religion 26 v. Sid
34、gwicks Early Ethical Views 40 vi. Sidgwick on Knowledge and Philosophy 52 2. Intuitionism and Common Sense 63 i. Reids Ethics 64 ii. The Scottish School 74 iii. Thomas Brown 78 iv. Alexander Smith 81 3. The Cambridge Moralists 89 i. Coleridge 91 ii. The Coleridgeans 95 iii. Whewells Ethics: The Syst
35、em 101 iv. Whewells Ethics: The Difficulties 112 v. John Grote 117 4. The Early Utilitarians 122 i. Utility and Religion 122 ii. Bentham 129 iii. Godwin 134 iv. Early Criticism 140 5. The Reworking of Utilitarianism 152 i. Utilitarians and Rules 153 ii. J. S. Mill: Philosophy and Society 163 iii. So
36、me Further Criticism of Utilitarianism 166 -xi- iv. The Other Utilitarians 174 v. Mills Utilitarianism and its Reception 178 PART II: THE METHODS OF ETHICS 6. The Aims and Scope of The Methods of Ethics 191 i. The Focus on Common Sense 191 ii. The Relation of Method to Principle 194 iii. The Basic M
37、ethods 198 iv. Ethics, Epistemology, and Psychology 204 v. Ethics and Free Will 207 vi. The Limits to Synthesis 212 7. Reason and Action 215 i. The Basic Notion 215 ii. Reason, Right, Ought, and Good 221 iii. The Neutrality of Practical Concepts 226 iv. Scepticism 229 Appendix: The 233 Development o
38、f I, iii and I, ix 8. Acts and Agents 237 i. Martineaus Theory 237 ii. The Religious Context of Martineaus Theory 243 iii. Sidgwicks Criticisms: The Data 247 iv. Sidgwicks Criticisms: The Theory 252 v. The Outcome of the Controversy 254 9. The Examination of Common-Sense Morality 260 i. The Role of
39、the Examination 260 ii. The Principles of the Examination 265 iii. Common Sense Examined 269 iv. The Dependence Argument 279 10. The Self-Evident Axioms 286 i. Some Methodological Concerns 286 ii. The Axioms Stated 290 iii. The Source and Function of the Axioms 297 iv. Axioms and Substantive Princip
40、les 304 11. The Transition to Utilitarianism 310 i. Virtue and the Ultimate Good 311 ii. Pleasure 316 iii. Pleasure and the Ultimate Good 322 -xii- 12. Utilitarianism and its Method 329 i. Utilitarianism Stated 329 ii. The Systematization Argument 331 iii. The Search for a Code 336 iv. Rules and Exc
41、eptions 340 v. Utilitarianism and Common Sense 349 13. The Dualism of the Practical Reason 352 i. The Viability of Egoism 353 ii. Egoism and the Systematization Argument 358 iii. The Axiom of Egoism 361 iv. The Necessity of Egoism 366 v. The Problem of the Dualism 370 vi. The Final Uncertainty 374 P
42、ART III: AFTER THE METHODS 14. Sidgwick and the Later Victorians 383 i. Evolutionism 384 ii. Idealism: F. H. Bradley 392 iii. Idealism: T. H. Green 401 15. Sidgwick and the History of Ethics 412 i. Sidgwicks History of Ethics 412 ii. Sidgwick in the History of Ethics 417 BIBLIOGRAPHIES I. Henry Sidg
43、wick: Manuscripts and Published Writings 423 II. (a) Checklist of Moralists, 1785-1900 433 (b) Literature on John Stuart Mills Utilitarianism, 1861-76 441 III. General Bibliography 444 Index 457 -xiii- Texts and References THE first edition of The Methods of Ethics was a closely printed volume of 47
44、3 pages. Though the book underwent innumerable alterations in subsequent editions, philosophically significant changes are the exception rather than the rule. The book grew to 509 pages, some material was cut out, a few chapter titles were altered, and the location of some material was shifted; but
45、the number and sequence of the chapters, the topics covered, and the main conclusions remained the same. For this reason the basic text in citations is that of the final, seventh edition. Normally when this edition is cited the reader may assume that earlier editions either are no different or diffe
46、r only in minor matters of wording. Occasionally this point is stressed by citations of the earlier editions. Where the alterations from edition to edition are significant, either because Sidgwick changed his views or because following the alterations helps in understanding his thought, appropriate
47、references to those editions are given. The texts of those of Sidgwicks other works which concern us do not vary significantly from edition to edition. In a book like this a large number of page references must inevitably be given. They have been put into the text wherever possible, and footnotes ar
48、e mostly kept for substantive material. To hold footnotes to a minimum, a system of reference involving the three bibliographies at the end of the volume is employed. References to Sidgwicks works are uniformly made in the text. Manuscripts and books are identified by the abbreviations given in the
49、first bibliography, which is a list of his writings. His articles are identified by giving the year and (where needed) the letter of the alphabet prefixed to the listing of the item in this bibliography. Articles that have been reprinted in collections of his own work are invariably cited by giving the page number of the collection, not the page number of the original publication. For The Methods of Ethics only, reference is made to specific chapters by the use of upper- and lower-case Roman numerals, without further identification, for Book- and chapter-
