scholarly journals Are We climbing the same mountain?

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-278
Author(s):  
Roger Crisp
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Ethical Question ◽  
Henry Sidgwick

AbstractThe paper begins by noting the widespread disagreement that has existed in philosophy from its very inception until now. It is claimed that Henry Sidgwick was right to see the main debate in ethics as between egoists, consequentialists, and deontologists. This raises the question whether the best approach might be to seek a position based on the different theories rather than one alone. Some clarification is then offered of the main questions asked in ethics, and it is claimed that the primary ethical question is that of Socrates: how should one live? Substantive agreement between our three normative theories is possible, but unlikely; and explanatory agreement is conceptually impossible. More restricted agreement may be possible, though doubts can be raised about Derek Parfit’s ‘triple theory’. One might attempt to combine different elements of the theories, syncretically, but again agreement is unlikely. The paper ends by considering the epistemic implications of disagreement, and with a recommendation of a more eirenic methodology for moral philosophy.

scholarly journals Nevil Vincent Sidgwick, 1873-1952

1954 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 236-258 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Trinity College ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
Henry Sidgwick ◽  
The Family

Nevil Vincent Sidgwick, who died on 15 March 1952, came from a highly gifted family. His ancestors were Yorkshire farmers, but his great-grandfather became a successful cotton spinner in Skipton. His grandfather, William Sidgwick, broke away from the family business and was sent to Cambridge, where he became a Wrangler. He was Headmaster of Skipton School until his death in 1841. He had three sons and one daughter. The eldest son, William Carr Sidgwick, Nevil’s father, was born in 1834. The two younger sons, Henry and Arthur, were born in 1838 and 1840. Henry Sidgwick became the famous Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge. Arthur Sidgwick was elected to a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1864, but soon afterwards was appointed an assistant master at Rugby School, where he remained for fifteen years. He was elected to a tutorial fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1882, and later became University Reader in Greek. Mary Sidgwick, their sister, married in 1859 Edward White Benson, who was then an assistant master at Rugby, and later became Archbishop of Canterbury.

Carpenter, Edward (1844–1929)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Leaves Of Grass ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Social Activist ◽  
Religious Doubt ◽  
The Social ◽  
Henry Sidgwick ◽  
Edward Carpenter

Edward Carpenter was a British poet, essayist, philosopher, social activist, and early advocate for the social acceptance of same-sex relationships. Born in Brighton, East Sussex, the son of Charles Carpenter and Sophia Wilson, he was educated at Brighton College and studied mathematics at Cambridge. In 1868 Carpenter earned a fellowship at Cambridge and reluctantly took Anglican orders. When Leslie Stephen, later the father of Virginia Woolf, resigned his appointment at Cambridge due to religious doubt, he suggested Carpenter as his replacement. The reformist movement promoted at Cambridge by F. D. Maurice, Professor of Moral Philosophy and disciple of Henry Sidgwick, influenced Carpenter’s outlook. But Carpenter could not reconcile his clerical duties with his religious doubt and in 1873 resigned his fellowship. By this time Carpenter had become aware of his homosexuality. He acquired a copy of William Michael Rossetti’s bowdlerized edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and in 1874 wrote to the older poet initiating a relationship that lasted until Whitman’s death in 1892. Following Whitman’s lead, Carpenter wrote his poem Towards Democracy (1883). Like Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, the poem would grow in volume over the next two decades.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Roger Crisp
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Main Topic ◽  
Psychological Egoism ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Henry Sidgwick ◽  
Rational Egoism

This chapter introduces Sacrifice Regained: Morality and Self-interest in British Moral Philosophy from Hobbes to Bentham. The main topic of the book is explained within a framework first set out clearly by the Cambridge philosopher Henry Sidgwick, in the nineteenth century. The ancient background to the discussion is described, especially in connection to the views of Socrates and Plato. Psychological egoism—the view that the sole ultimate motivation of voluntary human action is self-interest—is elucidated. Rational egoism is defined as the view that the only reason any agent has for acting is to promote their own self-interest.

Responsibility Ethics, Shared Understandings, and Moral Communities

Hypatia ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Card
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Moral Communities ◽  
Henry Sidgwick ◽  
Responsibility Ethics ◽  
Situated Practice ◽  
Shared Understandings

Margaret Walker's Moral Understandings offers an “expressive-collaborative,” culturally situated, practice—based picture of morality, critical of a “theoretical-juridical” picture in most prefeminist moral philosophy since Henry Sidgwick. This essay compares her approach to ethics with that of John Rawls, another exemplar of the “theoretical-juridical” model, and asks how Walker's approach would apply to several ethical issues, including interaction with (other) animals, social reform and revolution, and basic human rights.

scholarly journals Lord Rayleigh, 1875 - 1947

1949 ◽  
Vol 6 (18) ◽  
pp. 502-538 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Tropical Agriculture ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
The Third ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
Henry Sidgwick ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World

Robert John Strutt, fourth Baron Rayleigh, was born on 28 August 1875. Already well known in the world of science as R. J. Strutt, he succeeded to the title on the death of his distinguished father in 1919. He himself wrote the life of John William Strutt, O.M., F.R.S., the third Baron, and in that biography there is much to be found about the family history. It is sufficient therefore in this notice to refer to a few of the main facts. His mother was Evelyn Georgina Mary, daughter of James Maitland Balfour of Whittingehame, East Lothian; she was a sister of Arthur James Balfour, F.R.S. (Prime Minister, 1902-1905) and a niece of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury, F.R.S. (Prime Minister, 1885, 1886, 1895); her mother, Lady Blanche Cecil, was Lord Salisbury’s sister. His uncle on his mother’s side was Francis Maitland Balfour, F.R.S., and his aunt, Eleanor Mildred, Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, and wife of Professor Henry Sidgwick, Professor of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge University. Several uncles on his father’s side were distinguished agriculturists, C. H. Strutt, M.P. for Maldon, was a pioneer in tropical agriculture, and E. G. Strutt, C.H., well known for his influence on large-scale dairy farming; another, R. Strutt, was also an authority on tropical agriculture. The Strutts were descended from John Strutt ( d. 1694), a mill owner of Moulsham, Chelmsford. There had been a succession of stalwart forbears, who had been members of parliament and leaders in the county. His grandfather was a stoutly religious English gentleman, and his grandmother (Clara Elizabeth) was daughter of Richard Vicars, R.E. Whether it was the austere wisdom of the father, or the instincts engendered by military science of the mother, their son, the third Baron, had all the attributes of genius. Could it have been because he tumbled downstairs and was badly bruised in the head as a baby of twenty months? Who other than a genius could have written the Theory of Sound (or much of it), on board a ‘dahabeah’ on the Nile?

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