Henry Sidgwick

Henry Sidgwick 1894

Henry Sidgwick (born May 31, 1838 in Skipton , Yorkshire , † August 28, 1900 in Cambridge ) was an English philosopher and utilitarian . In the Anglo-Saxon world, he is often considered the first “modern” moral philosopher.

Life

Sidgwick attended Trinity College in Cambridge from 1855 . In 1857 he became a member of the Cambridge Apostles Discussion Society, which was strongly influenced by the liberal ideas of John Stuart Mills , and gradually broke away from his religious home. In 1859 he became a "Fellow of Trinity" and tutor for classical philology. In 1869 he had to give up this position because he had refused to sign the 39 Articles of Faith of the Church of England , which are binding for Fellows . As a result, the position of Lecturer in Moral Sciences at Cambridge University was created for him , which did not require a creed. In 1883 he became a professor of moral philosophy there. His students included u. a. George Edward Moore .

Together with his wife Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick (the sister of the future Prime Minister Arthur Balfour ), Sidgwick campaigned to enable women to receive an academic education. The efforts led first to the establishment of individual courses for female students at Trinity College, then in 1871 to the establishment of Newnham College in Cambridge, of which his wife Eleanor became director in 1892. Women were able to complete a full degree there for the first time in Great Britain.

Especially because of his main work The Methods of Ethics , Sidgwick is considered an important representative of moral philosophy . In a critical examination of the Victorian Moralists ( William Whewell et al.) And the fathers of utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham ) he tried to reconcile common-sense morality with utilitarianism.

In 1882 Sidgwick was a co-founder of the Society for Psychical Research and until 1884 its first (and 1888-1892 third) President. He was also honored in 1888 with admission to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

He was the father of chemist Nevil Vincent Sidgwick .

Fonts

Arthur and Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick, Henry Sidgwick , 1906

• 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.
• Unreasonable action . In: Min . Volume 2, No. 6, 1893, pp. 174-187.

literature

• Bart Schultz (ed.), Essays on Henry Sidgwick , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992, ISBN 0-521-39151-2
• Bart Schultz, Henry Sidgwick: Eye of the Universe. An Intellectual Biography , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge a. a. 2004, ISBN 0-521-82967-4

Web links

• Barton Schultz:  Entry in Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Sidgwick writings online
• Henry Sidgwick website . (English and French)
• Henry Sidgwick blog . (English and French)
• Official website of the 2nd International congress: Henry Sidgwick Ethics, Psychics, Politics. University of Catania, Italy . (Italian, English and French)
• Henry Sidgwick , biographical profile on Utilitarianism.net . (English)