author
Henry Sidgwick
1838–1900
A major Victorian thinker, he helped shape modern moral philosophy with clear, searching arguments about how people ought to live. Best known for The Methods of Ethics, he wrote with unusual honesty about the tensions inside utilitarian thought.
1 Audiobook
The Methods of Ethics
by Henry Sidgwick
About the author
Born in Skipton, Yorkshire, on May 31, 1838, Henry Sidgwick became one of the leading English philosophers of the 19th century. He studied and taught at Cambridge, later serving as Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy. He is best remembered for The Methods of Ethics (1874), a book that examined rival ways of reasoning about right and wrong and became a landmark in ethical philosophy.
Sidgwick is often linked with utilitarianism, but his importance lies not just in defending it. He tested moral theories carefully, asking where they were strongest and where they ran into trouble. That patient, analytical style gave his work lasting influence in philosophy, and he also wrote on economics.
His life reached beyond the lecture room. He was involved in the founding of Newnham College, Cambridge, supporting higher education for women, and he was also among the founders of the Society for Psychical Research. He died in Cambridge on August 28, 1900, leaving a body of work that still feels strikingly modern in its seriousness and clarity.