Henry Sidgwick facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Henry Sidgwick
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Sidgwick photographed by Elliott & Fry
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| Born | 31 May 1838 |
| Died | 28 August 1900 (aged 62) Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
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| Nationality | English |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Era | 19th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Utilitarianism |
| Institutions | Trinity College, Cambridge |
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Main interests
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Ethics, political philosophy |
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Notable ideas
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Average and total utilitarianism, ethical hedonism, ethical intuitionism, paradox of hedonism |
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Influences
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Influenced
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Henry Sidgwick (born May 31, 1838 – died August 28, 1900) was an English philosopher and economist. He is famous for his ideas on Utilitarianism, which is a way of thinking about what is right or wrong based on what creates the most happiness for the most people.
Sidgwick was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Cambridge. He wrote an important book called The Methods of Ethics. He also helped start Newnham College, which was one of the first colleges at Cambridge for women. He was also involved in the Society for Psychical Research, which studied unexplained events.
Contents
A Look at His Life
Henry Sidgwick was born in Skipton, a town in Yorkshire, England. His father was a school headmaster.
Henry went to Rugby School and then to Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was a brilliant student. He became a teacher of classics (ancient Greek and Roman studies) at Trinity College. Later, he changed his focus to moral philosophy. The Sidgwick Site at Cambridge, where many arts and humanities departments are, is named after him.
In 1869, he decided he could no longer be a member of the Church of England because of his beliefs. He resigned from his teaching position but continued to lecture. In 1874, he published his major work, The Methods of Ethics. This book made him well-known outside the university.
He became a professor of moral and political philosophy at Trinity in 1875. In 1883, he was elected the Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy, a very important position.
Besides teaching and writing, Sidgwick was very active in university life. He also worked on many social projects. He helped improve the university and was involved in various committees. One of his students at Cambridge was the famous philosopher Bertrand Russell.
Sidgwick was a founder and the first president of the Society for Psychical Research. This group investigated things like telepathy and other unexplained phenomena.
He strongly supported the higher education of women. He helped create exams for women and lectures to prepare them. He also helped Anne Clough open a house for women students, which grew into Newnham College, Cambridge. His wife later became the head of Newnham College.
In 1900, Henry Sidgwick became very ill and had to leave his professorship. He died a few months later. He was an agnostic, meaning he believed we cannot know for sure if God exists. He is buried in Terling, England.
His Ideas on Ethics
Sidgwick's main idea in ethics was Utilitarianism. This idea says that the best action is the one that brings the most happiness to the largest number of people. He combined this with "ethical intuitionism," which suggests we have some basic moral feelings about what is right.
He noticed a problem in the ideas of earlier utilitarians like Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. They said people always act in their own self-interest (psychological hedonism). But they also said people should act for the good of everyone (ethical hedonism). Sidgwick wondered how people could be expected to sacrifice their own interest for the general good if they always act selfishly. He thought that our moral intuitions, or strong feelings about right and wrong, could help explain why we should care about others.
For Sidgwick, ethics is about finding out what actions are truly right. He believed that our everyday ideas about right and wrong don't always have a clear rule behind them. Philosophy's job is to make these ideas more organized. He looked at three main ways to decide what's right:
- Intuitionism: This means using different moral rules that seem right on their own.
- Egoistic Hedonism: This focuses only on what brings pleasure and avoids pain for the person doing the action.
- Universal Hedonism (Utilitarianism): This focuses on what brings the most pleasure and avoids pain for everyone affected by the action.
Sidgwick tried to see if these three methods could work together. He thought intuitionism and utilitarianism could be combined. However, he found it hard to fully combine egoism (acting only for yourself) with utilitarianism (acting for everyone's good). He believed that without religious ideas (like rewards or punishments after death), there's a "dualism of practical reason." This means our reason tells us to do what's best for ourselves, but also what's best for everyone, and these two don't always match up.
Sidgwick's work was very important for modern ethics. He showed how to study ethics in a detailed, academic way. Many modern ethicists still use his methods.
His Work in Economics
Sidgwick also made important contributions to economics. He lived during a time when economics was changing from older ideas (like those of Adam Smith) to newer ones (like those of Alfred Marshall). Sidgwick tried to show how the old and new ideas were similar.
He believed that people are often motivated by their own self-interest in the economic world. He thought it was natural for people to want to sell things for the highest price and buy them for the lowest. However, he also saw that what's good for an individual isn't always good for a whole group of people.
He pointed out two main differences:
- Sometimes, there's more to life than just making money. So, society shouldn't always aim only for the most wealth. For example, limiting alcohol sales might be good for people's well-being, even if it reduces sales.
- When everyone tries to maximize their own wealth, it doesn't always lead to the most wealth for society as a whole. Sometimes, one person's actions can lower another person's wealth. Problems can also happen because of monopolies, where one company controls everything.
Sidgwick greatly influenced the field of welfare economics, which looks at how economic policies affect people's well-being. His work inspired Arthur Cecil Pigou, another important economist.
Alfred Marshall, a key figure in economics at Cambridge, called Sidgwick his "spiritual mother and father."
His Interest in the Paranormal
Sidgwick had a lifelong interest in the paranormal, which means things that seem to be beyond normal scientific understanding. This interest, along with his personal questions about religious belief, led him to gather young colleagues who wanted to find proof for paranormal events. This group was known as the "Sidgwick Group." It later became the Society for Psychical Research, with Sidgwick as its first president.
He even connected his interest in the paranormal to his ethics. He thought that if it could be proven that good behavior was rewarded after death, it might help solve the problem of why people should act for the general good if it conflicts with their self-interest.
Even though Sidgwick helped start the study of parapsychology, he and his group were also known for finding and exposing fake psychics. They helped show that many supposed paranormal events were actually tricks.
His Religious Views
Henry Sidgwick grew up in the Church of England. However, as he got older, he moved away from traditional Christian beliefs. He described himself as a theist (someone who believes in God but not necessarily organized religion) and later as an agnostic. He felt that Christianity was important for society, but he couldn't personally believe in it as a religion.
Works by Sidgwick
- The Ethics of Conformity and Subscription (1870)
- The Methods of Ethics (1874)
- The Theory of Evolution in its application to Practice (1876)
- Principles of Political Economy (1883)
- The Scope and Method of Economic Science (1885)
- Outlines of the History of Ethics for English Readers (1886)
- The Elements of Politics (1891)
- The Philosophy of Common Sense (1895)
- Economic science and economics (1896)
- Practical Ethics (1898)
- Philosophy; its Scope and Relations (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 and other philosophical lectures and essays (1905)
Family
Henry Sidgwick married Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick. She was the sister of Arthur Balfour, who later became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Images for kids
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Arthur & Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick, Henry Sidgwick, 1906
See also
- Palm Sunday Case
- In Spanish: Henry Sidgwick para niños
