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Methods of Ethics

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The Methods of Ethics is Sidgwick's great systematic treatise on ethics. It's also a central text in the history of philosophy, and it can be understood as the work that initiated contemporary ethical theory in the English-speaking world. Of course, this isn't a work that came out of nowhere. In fact, it's informed by Sidgwick's firm grounding in the history of previous ethical thought. And unlike many great philosophers, what Sidgwick has to say about his intellectual forbears is usually reasonably accurate. (See his Outlines of the History of Ethics for additional evidence of his knowledge--and for an excellent introduction to the history of ethics.)

This book is long; it's detailed; and it aspires to comprehensiveness. Indeed, all of the main areas of philosophical ethics (viz. meta-ethics, normative ethics, and moral psychology) are covered herein. Consequently, it's simply impossible to summarize Sidgwick's argument here. Instead of futilely attempting to do so, I'll simply provide the barest outline of Sidgwick's aims and his results.

According to Sidgwick, there are three fundamental methods of ethics: egoistic hedonism, intuitionism, utilitarianism. He wants to examine the nature and plausiblity of each of these methods. The fundamental principle of egoistic hedonism is that what one ought to do (i.e. what one has most reason to do) is what will maximize one's own net amount of pleasure in the long run. The method of hedonism is the method of determing what one ought to do by accumulating empirical evidence about the consequences of particular actions for one's own happiness. Intuitionism, according to Sidgwick, is the view that we have an ability to discern the rightness and wrongness of actions without drawing on empirical evidence concerning the consequences of those actions. The intuitionist tells us that certain fundamental moral principles are self-evident to all who understand them. And intuitionism, Sidgwick claims, is the method underlying common-sense morality. Finally, the fundamental principle of utilitarianism is that what we ought to do is what will maximize the net amount of pleasure for all sentient beings.

Perhaps the most important conclusion of Sidgwick's book is that the method of intuitionism is swallowed up by utilitarianism. For utilitarianism allows us to explain all the elements of the morality of common sense, elements that Sidgwick discusses at length in his account of intuitionism; and furthermore, the self-evident moral principles at which a reflective intuitionism allows us to arrive are principles from which we can prove the fundamental principle of utilitarianism. This, Sidgwick thinks, eliminates any apparent conflict between these two methods, and it shows that utilitarianism, when properly understood, is consistent with common-sense morality.

But Sidgwick thinks that the relation between utilitarianism and egoistic hedonism remains problematic. The final conclusion of his book is that there is an apparently irreconcilable contradiction in our moral thinking. It seems we have compelling, and perhaps overriding, reasons to do both what is our moral duty and what is in our own interest, but, Sidgwick claims, there is no compelling argument that moral duty and self-interest will always converge. That is, there is no good reason to think that acting morally is always in our self-interest, and this is problematic since both our moral duties and our self-interest place genuine claims on us. Practical thought, then, seems to end up in a fundamental sort of contradiction.

This book is mandatory reading for anyone interested in ethics.

Be forewarned! Although there is nothing wrong with the printing and paper quality of this text, it is a reproduction of a poorly scanned OCR with innumerable bits of random characters, and footnotes strewn throughout the text without warning. If they had used the original from which it was scanned, it might have been a nice book. As it is, you can't really read it without consulting another copy of the text...

Along with Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments and Herbert Spencer's Principles of Ethics, this treatise is one of the great under-read masterpieces of British moral philosophy. The book reflects both wide learning and careful study. Sidgwick casts a broad net, and pulls in some very fish.

The three "methods of ethics" he explores are, basically, egoism, intuitionism, and utilitarianism. Though his arguments ultimately fail to convince me of what he is trying to convince me, they are amazingly fecund. You will not stop thinking about this book after you have read it.

The highlight of the book, for me, I'm afraid, was his brilliant few pages criticizing libertarianism in social ethics. This is probably the first such critique that stays on point, and is worth careful study by all who place primacy on liberty.

There are a couple of low ratings and complaints in these reviews about the "General Books" version of this book, because it is OCR'd not edited. Potential readers should understand: the Kindle edition, put out by the Jefferson Adams Library, is NOT the same as the General Books version. Like all titles from this publisher, it has been meticulously edited by a professional scholar, and includes an active table of contents -- one that has had all of Sidgwick's chapter annotations included. This is a solid, reliable version -- oh and by the way, Sidgwick's actual book is a masterpiece. One of the greatest works of modern philosophy.

The copy of general books does not worth the money, and there is no table of contents and index. Don't buy it unless you are tired of reading some copies from the internet.

This review is not about the content of the book. It is about the General Books copy. The copy is produced by OCR and has many typos, too many to be of any use. It is just a waste of money and time to buy this copy.

I purchased this book given its low price. Unfortunately any price for this book is too high. It includes a disclaimer before the title page about the frequency of typos in the text. Heed their warning! The format renders the book impossible to read; paragraphs are often split, and capitalization mistakes are ubiquitous. I am literally going to throw this book out and find another copy. Also, the footnotes are made indistinguishable from the text proper making it really confusing to read.

Frankly, Sidgewick's books on Politics are better, because less rambly. But he was a genius. And even though his sentences are long, they're so crammed with insight that this book (which, I suspect, was a first draft) is a joy to read. His analyses of ethical egoism and rule-utilitarianism are not just classics: they are decisive (in my view, which is biased). This book, taken together with Ross's "The Right and the Good," contains around 95% of what there is to know about ethics. (Which isn't much. But that's not Sidgewick's fault. Plus, he's pretty much the only ethicist I've read---setting aside authors in the non-analytic tradition, such as Schopenhauer (who is actually probably better, ultimately, than anyone in the analytic tradition)---who says anything that rises above common sense.
Sidgewick is a genius. Truly. He's technically mind, which will alienate a lot of readers. But if you're an analytic ethicist, or a legal scholar, you have to master his work (which is surprisingly entertaining, given what an incredibly boring subject ethics is).