Continuum Classic Texts
1 total work
These three volumes are mainly devoted to Bentham, James Mill, and John Stuart Mill. In the book the author argues that the utilitarians, were social reformers first and "philosophers" second - if at all. Volume One consists largely of a catalogue of the social evils that provided Bentham with his problem and his stimulus. Failure to get his plans for legal reform adopted led him slowly to the realization that the ruling classes did not always desire "the greatest happiness of the greatest number". This in turn propelled him into political radicalism. In Volume Two there is an extended discussion of the central problems of the new science of political economy by Malthus and Ricardo, which provided the essential framework for much of James Mill's thought. In Volume Three it is shown that pure philosophical problems, such as those treated in J.S.Mill's "Logic", are not entirely divorced from social and political issues. The history of philosophy, the author argues is not an isolated domain governed by the unfolding of a timeless inner logic but rather an integral part of the history of humanity.