The Methods of Ethics

Introduction

Sidgwick published the Methods in 1874, five years after resigning his fellowship over the religious tests, and revised it until his death; the seventh edition appeared in 1907. Instead of advocating one theory, he examines the “methods” by which people decide what they ought to do and tests each for clarity and consistency. After a general first book come books on egoism, on intuitionism, with a long analysis of common-sense morality, and on utilitarianism. Sidgwick finds the axioms of prudence and of impartiality both self-evident, so that practical reason seems divided against itself. C. D. Broad called it the best treatise on moral theory ever written, and Rawls wrote the foreword to a 1981 reprint.

Connections

Builds on

• Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals1785 · Immanuel Kant
• Utilitarianism1863 · John Stuart Mill

Taken up in

• Principia Ethica1903 · G. E. Moore
• Reasons and Persons1984 · Derek Parfit
• On What Matters2011 · Derek Parfit

Criticized in

• Modern Moral Philosophy1958 · G. E. M. Anscombe
• A Theory of Justice1971 · John Rawls