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Book Cover for: Utilitarianism: For and Against, J. J. Smart

Utilitarianism: For and Against

J. J. Smart

Paperback
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Two essays on utilitarianism, written from opposite points of view, by J. J. C. Smart and Bernard Williams. In the first part of the book Professor Smart advocates a modern and sophisticated version of classical utilitarianism; he tries to formulate a consistent and persuasive elaboration of the doctrine that the rightness and wrongness of actions is determined solely by their consequences, and in particular their consequences for the sum total of human happiness. In Part II Bernard Williams offers a sustained and vigorous critique of utilitarian assumptions, arguments and ideals. He finds inadequate the theory of action implied by utilitarianism, and he argues that utilitarianism fails to engage at a serious level with the real problems of moral and political philosophy, and fails to make sense of notions such as integrity, or even human happiness itself. This book should be of interest to welfare economists, political scientists and decision-theorists.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • Publish Date: Jan 1st, 1973
  • Pages: 160
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.60in - 4.90in - 0.60in - 0.35lb
  • EAN: 9780521098229
  • Categories: • Movements - Humanism• Political

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Rebecca Buxton
Rebecca Buxton
@RebeccaBuxton
2 years

Lecturer in social and political philosophy, University of Bristol

@Anniek121 And I think Bernard Williams met Patricia because she was working at CUP on his 'Utilitarian: for and against' book with Smart.

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Mentioner image for: Michael Bench-Capon
Michael Bench-Capon
@MikeBenchCapon
2 years

I have a PhD in philosophy. Now I work in a library. He/him.

@hermeneuticist Bernard Williams has an example (in his part of Utilitarianism: For and Against iirc) about someone called George becoming a chemical weapons maker because if they don't then someone else will and probably more efficiently

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Mentioner image for: Kathleen Stock
Kathleen Stock
@Docstockk
2 years

Sapphist sophist or vice versa. Book: https://t.co/HUsWwY3S78 Agent:@littlehardman Co-directs @project_lesbian Writes @UnHerd. Founding Faculty Fellow @uaustinorg

@TomChivers The psychopath point is just a colourful version of Bernard Williams' famous criticism of utilitarianism, that (roughly) in their quest to make impersonal calculations, scaled up, they lose contact with their own personal relationships and histories, and become alienated

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