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utilitarianism

(Encyclopedia)utilitarianism yo͞oˌtĭlĭtrˈēənĭzəm, yo͞otĭˌ– [key], in ethics, the theory that the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its usefulness in bringing about the most happines...

Sidgwick, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Sidgwick, Henry sĭjˈwĭk [key], 1838–1900, English philosopher. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and taught moral philosophy there from 1869 until 1900. The basis of his thought was Briti...

Cumberland, Richard, 1631–1718, English philosopher

(Encyclopedia)Cumberland, Richard, 1631–1718, English philosopher. He was bishop of Peterborough from 1691. In his De legibus naturae [on natural laws] (1672) he first propounded the doctrine of utilitarianism an...

Tucker, Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Tucker, Abraham, 1705–74, English philosopher, b. London. He studied law at Merton College, Oxford, and later devoted himself to independent study. He advanced the ethical view that each man seeks h...

Bentham, Jeremy

(Encyclopedia)Bentham, Jeremy, 1748–1832, English philosopher, jurist, political theorist, and founder of utilitarianism. Educated at Oxford, he was trained as a lawyer and was admitted to the bar, but he never p...

Chadwick, Sir Edwin

(Encyclopedia)Chadwick, Sir Edwin, 1800–1890, English social reformer. For many years an assistant to Jeremy Bentham, Chadwick applied Bentham's utilitarianism to the reform (1834) of the Poor Law and to the deve...

Mill, John Stuart

(Encyclopedia)Mill, John Stuart, 1806–73, British philosopher and economist. A precocious child, he was educated privately by his father, James Mill. In 1823, abandoning the study of law, he became a clerk in the...

Halévy, Élie

(Encyclopedia)Halévy, Élie ālēˈ älāvēˈ [key], 1870–1937, French historian, an authority on 19th-century England; son of Ludovic Halévy. In The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism (3 vol., 1901–4; tr., ne...

Mandeville, Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Mandeville, Bernard mănˈdəvĭl [key], 1670–1733, English author, b. Dordrecht, Holland. A physician, he went to London in 1692 ostensibly to learn the language, but eventually settled there perma...

Bentinck, Lord William Cavendish

(Encyclopedia)Bentinck, Lord William Cavendish bĕnˈtingk, –tĭk [key], 1774–1839, British administrator in India. He served in the Napoleonic Wars and was (1803–7) governor of Madras. He was appointed gover...

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