Henry Sidgwick
Encyclopedia
Henry Sidgwick was an English
utilitarian
philosopher and economist
. He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research
, a member of the Metaphysical Society
, and promoted the higher education of women. His work in economics
has also had a lasting influence.
in Yorkshire
, where his father, the Reverend W. Sidgwick (d. 1841), was headmaster of the local grammar school
, Ermysted's Grammar School
. Henry himself was educated at Rugby
(where his cousin, subsequently his brother-in-law, Edward White Benson
– later Archbishop of Canterbury
– was a master), and at Trinity College, Cambridge
. While at Trinity, Sidgwick became a member of the Cambridge Apostles
. In 1859 he was senior classic, 33rd wrangler, chancellor's medallist and Craven scholar. In the same year he was elected to a fellowship at Trinity, and soon afterwards became a lecturer in classics there, a post he held for ten years.
In 1869, he exchanged his lectureship for one in moral philosophy, a subject to which he had been turning his attention. In the same year, deciding that he could no longer in good conscience declare himself a member of the Church of England
, he resigned his fellowship. He retained his lectureship, and in 1881 was elected an honorary fellow. In 1874 he published The Methods of Ethics
(6th ed. 1901, containing emendations written just before his death), by common consent a major work, which made his reputation outside the university. John Rawls
called it the "first truly academic work in moral theory, modern in both method and spirit."
In 1875, he was appointed praelector
on moral and political philosophy at Trinity, and in 1883 he was elected Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy
. In 1885, the religious test having been removed, his college once more elected him to a fellowship on the foundation.
Besides his lecturing and literary labours, Sidgwick took an active part in the business of the university, and in many forms of social and philanthropic work. He was a member of the General Board of Studies from its foundation in 1882 till 1899; he was also a member of the Council of the Senate of the Indian Civil Service Board and the Local Examinations and Lectures Syndicate, and chairman of the Special Board for Moral Science.
Bart Schultz's 2005 biography of Sidgwick sought to establish that Sidgwick was a lifelong homosexual, though it is unknown whether he ever expressed his inclinations in intercourse. According to Schultz, Sidgwick struggled internally throughout his life with issues of hypocrisy and openness in connection with his own forbidden desires.
, and was a member of the Metaphysical Society
. Prominently, he took in promoting the higher education of women. He helped to start the higher local examinations for women, and the lectures held at Cambridge in preparation for these. It was at his suggestion and with his help that Anne Clough
opened a house of residence for students, which developed into Newnham College, Cambridge
. When, in 1880, the North Hall was added, Sidgwick, who in 1876 had married Eleanor Mildred Balfour (sister of A. J. Balfour), lived there for two years. After Clough's death in 1892 Mrs Sidgwick became principal of the college, and she and her husband lived there for the rest of his life. During this whole period Sidgwick took the deepest interest in the welfare of the college. In British politics he was a liberal, and became a Liberal Unionist (a party that later effectively merged with the Conservative party) in 1886. Early in 1900 he was forced by ill-health to resign his professorship, and died a few months later.
Sidgwick was a famous teacher. He treated his pupils as fellow students. He was deeply interested in psychical phenomena, but his energies were primarily devoted to the study of religion and philosophy. Brought up in the Church of England, he drifted away from orthodox Christianity, and as early as 1862 he described himself as a theist, independent from established religion. For the rest of his life, though he regarded Christianity as "indispensable and irreplaceable – looking at it from a sociological point of view," he found himself unable to return to it as a religion.
In political economy
he was a utilitarian
on the lines of John Stuart Mill
and Jeremy Bentham
. His work was characterized by its careful investigation of first principles, as in his distinction of positive
and normative
reasoning, and by critical analysis, not always constructive. His influence was such that for example Alfred Marshall
, founder of the Cambridge School of economics, would describe him as his "spiritual mother and father."
In philosophy he devoted himself to ethics, and especially to the examination of the ultimate intuitive principles of conduct and the problem of free will. He adopted a position which may be described as ethical hedonism, according to which the criterion of goodness in any given action is that it produces the greatest possible amount of pleasure. This hedonism, however, is not confined to the self (egoistic
), but involves a due regard to the pleasure of others, and is, therefore, distinguished further as universalistic. Lastly, Sidgwick returns to the principle that no man should act so as to destroy his own happiness.
See also the Palm Sunday Case
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
utilitarian
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall "happiness", by whatever means necessary. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome, and that one can...
philosopher and economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
. He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research
Society for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...
, a member of the Metaphysical Society
Metaphysical Society
The Metaphysical Society was a British society, founded in 1869 by James Knowles. Many of its members were prominent clergymen.Papers were read and discussed at meetings on such subjects as the ultimate grounds of belief in the objective and moral sciences, the immortality of the soul, etc...
, and promoted the higher education of women. His work in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
has also had a lasting influence.
Biography
He was born at SkiptonSkipton
Skipton is a market town and civil parish within the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is located along the course of both the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Aire, on the south side of the Yorkshire Dales, northwest of Bradford and west of York...
in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, where his father, the Reverend W. Sidgwick (d. 1841), was headmaster of the local grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
, Ermysted's Grammar School
Ermysted's Grammar School
Ermysteds Grammar School is a LEA-funded selective boys' Grammar School in Skipton, North Yorkshire, England, teaching over 800 pupils.It is the seventh oldest state school in Britain and was founded by Peter Toller in the 15th century. The first official record of the school was seen in Peter...
. Henry himself was educated at Rugby
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
(where his cousin, subsequently his brother-in-law, Edward White Benson
Edward White Benson
Edward White Benson was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 until his death.-Life:Edward White Benson was born in Highgate, Birmingham, the son of a Birmingham chemical manufacturer. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1852...
– later Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
– was a master), and at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
. While at Trinity, Sidgwick became a member of the Cambridge Apostles
Cambridge Apostles
The Cambridge Apostles, also known as the Cambridge Conversazione Society, is an intellectual secret society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who went on to become the first Bishop of Gibraltar....
. In 1859 he was senior classic, 33rd wrangler, chancellor's medallist and Craven scholar. In the same year he was elected to a fellowship at Trinity, and soon afterwards became a lecturer in classics there, a post he held for ten years.
In 1869, he exchanged his lectureship for one in moral philosophy, a subject to which he had been turning his attention. In the same year, deciding that he could no longer in good conscience declare himself a member of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, he resigned his fellowship. He retained his lectureship, and in 1881 was elected an honorary fellow. In 1874 he published The Methods of Ethics
The Methods of Ethics
The Methods of Ethics is a book on utilitarianism first published in 1874 by the English philosopher Henry Sidgwick. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy indicates that The Methods of Ethics "in many ways marked the culmination of the classical utilitarian tradition." Well-known contemporary...
(6th ed. 1901, containing emendations written just before his death), by common consent a major work, which made his reputation outside the university. John Rawls
John Rawls
John Bordley Rawls was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy. He held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard University....
called it the "first truly academic work in moral theory, modern in both method and spirit."
In 1875, he was appointed praelector
Praelector
A praelector is a traditional role at the colleges of the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. The role differs between the two universities.At Cambridge, a praelector is a fellow of a college...
on moral and political philosophy at Trinity, and in 1883 he was elected Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy
Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy
The Knightbridge Professorship of Philosophy is the senior professorship in philosophy at the University of Cambridge.One of the oldest professorships in Cambridge, the chair was founded in 1683 by John Knightbridge, fellow of Peterhouse....
. In 1885, the religious test having been removed, his college once more elected him to a fellowship on the foundation.
Besides his lecturing and literary labours, Sidgwick took an active part in the business of the university, and in many forms of social and philanthropic work. He was a member of the General Board of Studies from its foundation in 1882 till 1899; he was also a member of the Council of the Senate of the Indian Civil Service Board and the Local Examinations and Lectures Syndicate, and chairman of the Special Board for Moral Science.
Bart Schultz's 2005 biography of Sidgwick sought to establish that Sidgwick was a lifelong homosexual, though it is unknown whether he ever expressed his inclinations in intercourse. According to Schultz, Sidgwick struggled internally throughout his life with issues of hypocrisy and openness in connection with his own forbidden desires.
Works
He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical ResearchSociety for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...
, and was a member of the Metaphysical Society
Metaphysical Society
The Metaphysical Society was a British society, founded in 1869 by James Knowles. Many of its members were prominent clergymen.Papers were read and discussed at meetings on such subjects as the ultimate grounds of belief in the objective and moral sciences, the immortality of the soul, etc...
. Prominently, he took in promoting the higher education of women. He helped to start the higher local examinations for women, and the lectures held at Cambridge in preparation for these. It was at his suggestion and with his help that Anne Clough
Anne Clough
Anne Jemima Clough was an early English suffragist and a promoter of higher education for women.Clough was born at Liverpool, the daughter of a cotton merchant. She was the sister of Arthur Hugh Clough, the poet and assistant to Florence Nightingale. When two years old she was taken with the rest...
opened a house of residence for students, which developed into Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College...
. When, in 1880, the North Hall was added, Sidgwick, who in 1876 had married Eleanor Mildred Balfour (sister of A. J. Balfour), lived there for two years. After Clough's death in 1892 Mrs Sidgwick became principal of the college, and she and her husband lived there for the rest of his life. During this whole period Sidgwick took the deepest interest in the welfare of the college. In British politics he was a liberal, and became a Liberal Unionist (a party that later effectively merged with the Conservative party) in 1886. Early in 1900 he was forced by ill-health to resign his professorship, and died a few months later.
Sidgwick was a famous teacher. He treated his pupils as fellow students. He was deeply interested in psychical phenomena, but his energies were primarily devoted to the study of religion and philosophy. Brought up in the Church of England, he drifted away from orthodox Christianity, and as early as 1862 he described himself as a theist, independent from established religion. For the rest of his life, though he regarded Christianity as "indispensable and irreplaceable – looking at it from a sociological point of view," he found himself unable to return to it as a religion.
In political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
he was a utilitarian
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall "happiness", by whatever means necessary. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome, and that one can...
on the lines of John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
and Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
. His work was characterized by its careful investigation of first principles, as in his distinction of positive
Positive economics
Positive economics is the branch of economics that concerns the description and explanation of economic phenomena. It focuses on facts and cause-and-effect behavioral relationships and includes the development and testing of economics theories...
and normative
Normative economics
Normative economics is that part of economics that expresses value judgments about economic fairness or what the economy ought to be like or what goals of public policy ought to be....
reasoning, and by critical analysis, not always constructive. His influence was such that for example Alfred Marshall
Alfred Marshall
Alfred Marshall was an Englishman and one of the most influential economists of his time. His book, Principles of Economics , was the dominant economic textbook in England for many years...
, founder of the Cambridge School of economics, would describe him as his "spiritual mother and father."
In philosophy he devoted himself to ethics, and especially to the examination of the ultimate intuitive principles of conduct and the problem of free will. He adopted a position which may be described as ethical hedonism, according to which the criterion of goodness in any given action is that it produces the greatest possible amount of pleasure. This hedonism, however, is not confined to the self (egoistic
Egotism
Egotism is "characterized by an exaggerated estimate of one's intellect, ability, importance, appearance, wit, or other valued personal characteristics" – the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself....
), but involves a due regard to the pleasure of others, and is, therefore, distinguished further as universalistic. Lastly, Sidgwick returns to the principle that no man should act so as to destroy his own happiness.
See also the Palm Sunday Case
Palm Sunday Case
The Palm Sunday Case was a series of events involving cross correspondence and numerous psychic mediums, over a long period and involving members of the American Society for Psychical Research...
.
by Sidgwick
- The Methods of Ethics. London, 1874, 7th ed. 1907.
- "The Theory of Evolution in its application to Practice", in MindMind (journal)Mind is a British journal, currently published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Mind Association, which deals with philosophy in the analytic tradition...
, Volume I, Number 1 January 1876, 52–67, - Principles of Political Economy. London, 1883, 3rd ed. 1901.
- The Scope and Method of Economic Science. 1885.
- The Elements of Politics. London, 1891, 4th ed. 1919.
- Outlines of the History of Ethics. 1886, 5th ed. 1902 (enlarged from his article ethics in the Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
). - "The Philosophy of Common Sense", in MindMind (journal)Mind is a British journal, currently published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Mind Association, which deals with philosophy in the analytic tradition...
, New Series, Volume IV, Number 14, April 1895, 145–158. - "economic science and economics," Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy, 1896, v. 1, reprinted in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 1987, v. 2, 58-59.
- Practical Ethics. London, 1898, 2nd ed. 1909.
- Philosophy; its Scope and Relations. London, 1902.
- Lectures on the Ethics of T. H. Green, Mr Herbert Spencer and J. Martineau. 1902.
- The Development of European Polity. 1903.
- Miscellaneous Essays and Addresses. 1904.
- Lectures on the Philosophy of Kant. 1905.
- Sidgwick's writings available online
about Sidgwick
- Schultz, Bart. Henry Sidgwick: Eye of the Universe. An Intellectual Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
- Schultz, Bart. Henry Sidgwick. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. October 5, 2004.
- Blum, Deborah. Ghost Hunters. Arrow Books, 2007.
- Dawes, Ann. "Henry Sidgwick". Biograph, 2007 Geninet, Hortense. POLITIQUES COMPAREES, Henry Sidgwick et la politique moderne dans les Eléménts Politiques, Edited by Hortense Geninet, France, September 2009. ISBN 9782746610439
- Nakano-Okuno, Mariko. Sidgwick and Contemporary Utilitarianism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. ISBN9780230321786
External links
- Henry Sidgwick Website English and French.
- Henry Sidgwick blog English and French.
- Bibliography and Library of Sidgwick's writings
- Official website of the 2nd International congress : Henry Sidgwick Ethics, Psychics, Politics. University of Catania - Italy Italian, English, French.
- Henry Sidgwick. Comprehensive list of online writings by and about Sidgwick.
- Stanford's Encyclopedia's Entry.
- Contains Sidgwick's "Methods of Ethics", modified for easier reading