Henry Sidgwick (May 31 1838 August 28 1900) 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. Contents 1 Biography 2 Works 3 Bibliography 3.1 by Sidgwick 3.2 about Sidgwick 4 References 5 External links Biography

He was born at Skipton 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.1

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."2

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.citation needed

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.3 Works Part of a series on Utilitarianism Predecessors Epicurus David Hume  William Godwin  Francis Hutcheson People Jeremy Bentham  John Stuart Mill Henry Sidgwick  Richard Mervyn Hare  Peter Singer Types of utilitarianism Preference  Rule  Act Two-level  Total  Average Relative  Negative  Hedonism Enlightened self-interest Key concepts Pain  Suffering  Pleasure Utility  Happiness  Eudaimonia Consequentialism  Felicific calculus Problems Mere addition paradox Paradox of hedonism Utility monster Related topics Rational choice theory  Game theory Social choice  Neoclassical economics   Politics portal v d e

He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research 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.citation needed

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.4 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." 5 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.citation needed See also the Palm Sunday Case Bibliography by Sidgwick The Methods of Ethics. London 1874 7th ed. 1907. "The Theory of Evolution in its application to Practice" in Mind Volume I Number 1 January 1876 5267 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 Encyclopdia Britannica). "The Philosophy of Common Sense" in Mind New Series Volume IV Number 14 April 1895 145158. "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 (French) Geninet Hortense. POLITIQUES COMPAREES Henry Sidgwick et la politique moderne dans les Elmnts Politiques Edited by Hortense Geninet France September 2009. ISBN 9782746610439 References Sidgwick Henry in Venn J. & J. A. Alumni Cantabrigienses Cambridge University Press 10 vols 19221958. Rawls J. 1980. 'Kantian Constructivism in Moral Theory'. In: Journal of Philosophy 77 (1980). The Nation June 6 2005. "The Epistemology of the Closet." Losing My Religion:Sidgwick Theism and the Struggle for Utilitarian Ethics in Economic Analysis by Steven G. Medema: http://hope.dukejournals.org/cgi/reprint/40/5/189.pdf Phyllis Deane "Sidgwick Henry" The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics 1987 v. 4 pp. 328-29. 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.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm Hugh ed (1911). Encyclopdia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.  v d eEthics Related articles Applied ethics  Normative ethics  Meta-ethics  Descriptive ethics  Medical ethics  Professional ethics Concepts in ethics Freedom  Autonomy  Rights  Conscience  Value  Morality  Responsibility  Care  Justice  Principles  Virtue  Happiness  Norm  Suffering or Pain  Equality  Trust  Free will  Consent  Moral right  Human rights  Just War  Axiology  more... Theories Consequentialism  Deontology  Virtue ethics   Ethics of care Philosophers Plato  Aristotle  Confucius  Mencius  Augustine of Hippo   Thomas Aquinas  Baruch Spinoza  David Hume  Immanuel Kant  Georg W. F. Hegel  Arthur Schopenhauer  Jeremy Bentham  John Stuart Mill  Sren Kierkegaard  Henry Sidgwick  Friedrich Nietzsche  G. E. Moore  Karl Barth  Paul Tillich  Philippa Foot  John Rawls  Bernard Williams  J. L. Mackie  Alasdair MacIntyre  Peter Singer  Derek Parfit  Thomas Nagel   more... 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Tucker  Jessica Utts  Ren Warcollier  Karl Zener Publications Extrasensory Perception  Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century  Journal of Consciousness Studies  Journal of Near-Death Studies  Journal of Parapsychology  Journal of Scientific Exploration  Life After Life: The Investigation of a PhenomenonSurvival of Bodily Death  Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives  Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence For Past Lives  Parapsychology: Frontier Science of the Mind  The Roots of Coincidence  Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation  Persondata Name Sidgwick Henry Alternative names Short description English philosopher Date of birth May 31 1838 Place of birth Skipton Yorkshire Date of death August 28 1900 Place of death