Henry Sidgwick

Henry Sidgwick ( born May 31, 1838 in Skipton, Yorkshire, † August 28 1900 in Cambridge ) was an English philosopher. He is in Anglo-Saxon often as the first "modern " moral philosopher.

Sidgwick attended from 1855 to Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1857 he became a member of the heavily influenced by the liberal ideas of John Stuart Mill Cambridge discussion society Apostles and dissipated gradually by his faith-based parents' house. In 1859, he was " Fellow of Trinity " and tutor for classics. In 1869 he had to give up this position because he had refused to sign the binding for Fellows 39 Articles of Faith of the Church of England. Then the position of Lecturer in Moral Sciences was created at the University of Cambridge for him that required no creed. In 1883 he was a professor of moral philosophy. Among his students, among others belonged George Edward Moore.

Together with his wife Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick ( the sister of the future Prime Minister Arthur Balfour ) Sidgwick advocated to allow women an academic education. The efforts led initially at Trinity College for the establishment of individual courses for female students, in 1871, then to the founding of Newnham College, Cambridge, whose director in 1892 his wife Eleanor was. Women were able to complete a full course in the UK for the first time there.

In particular, due to his main work The Methods of Ethics Sidgwick considered as an important representative of moral philosophy. In a critical examination of the Victorian Moralists ( William Whewell, among others ) and the fathers of utilitarianism ( John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham ), he tried to bring the common -sense morality with utilitarianism in line.

1882 Sidgwick was a co-founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and by 1884 their first ( and third 1888-1892 ) President.

Writings

  • The Methods of Ethics, London, 1874.
  • Principles of Political Economy, 1883.
  • The Scope and Method of Economic Science, 1885.
  • Elements of Politics, 1891.
  • The Development of European Polity, 1903.

Articles (Selection )

  • Unreasonable Action. In: Mind. Volume 2, No. 6, 1893, pp. 174-187.
Cambridge Apostles Scottish Common Sense Realism Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Integrated Authority File
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