Utilitarianism and EmpireThe classical utilitarian legacy of Jeremy Bentham, J. S. Mill, James Mill, and Henry Sidgwick has often been charged with both theoretical and practical complicity in the growth of British imperialism and the emerging racialist discourse of the nineteenth century. But there has been little scholarly work devoted to bringing together the conflicting interpretive perspectives on this legacy and its complex evolution with respect to orientalism and imperialism. This volume, with contributions by leading scholars in the field, represents the first attempt to survey the full range of current scholarly controversy on how the classical utilitarians conceived of 'race' and the part it played in their ethical and political programs, particularly with respect to such issues as slavery and the governance of India. The book both advances our understanding of the history of utilitarianism and imperialism and promotes the scholarly debate, clarifying the major points at issue between those sympathetic to the utilitarian legacy and those critical of it. |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
abolish abolition argument Aristotle attitude Benthamite Boralevi Bowring Britain British India Bryce Cambridge University Press Carlyle Carlyle's century civilised civilized claims Clarendon Press colonial rule conception critical critique cultural despotism developed economic emancipation empire England English equal essay Ethics European Eyre's French Georgios Varouxakis Governor Eyre Controversy happiness Henry Sidgwick Herbert Spencer human idea imperialism imperialist important institutions intellectual issue J. S. Mill Jamaica Committee James Fitzjames Stephen James Mill Jennifer Pitts Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill Jones's justice Legislation letter liberal utilitarianism liberty London Majeed Mandler ment Mill argues Mill's History Mill's views moral rights national character Negro non-European oppression Oxford Panopticon Parekh philosophical pleasure political principle progress question race racial racist reform regard Romilly Rosen Sidg slave trade slavery social society theory thinkers thought tion Toronto Press tradition utilitarianism utility Victorian William writings wrote
Fréquemment cités
Page 121 - Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.
Page 120 - Men do not want solely the obedience of women, they want their sentiments. All men, except the most brutish, desire to have, in the woman most nearly connected with them, not a forced slave but a willing one, not a slave merely, but a favourite.
Page 115 - greatest happiness principle" holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure. To give a clear view of the moral standard set up by the theory, much more requires to be said; in particular, what things it includes in the ideas of pain and pleasure; and to what extent this is left an open question.
Page 137 - Of all vulgar modes of escaping from the consideration of the effect of social and moral influences on the human mind, the most vulgar is that of attributing the diversities of conduct and character to inherent natural differences.
Page 122 - What marriage may be in the case of two persons of cultivated faculties, identical in opinions and purposes, between whom there exists that best kind of equality, similarity of powers and capacities with reciprocal superiority in them — so that each can enjoy the luxury of looking up to the other, and can have alternately the pleasure of leading and of being led in the path of development — I will not attempt to describe. To those who can conceive it, there is no need ; to those who cannot, it...
Page 118 - Memoires," and came to the passage which relates his father's death, the distressed position of the family, and the sudden inspiration by which he, then a mere boy, felt and made them feel that he would be everything to them — would supply the place of all that they had lost.
Page 111 - By the principle* of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question : or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness.
Page 131 - Thirdly, the introduction of foreign arts, which raise the returns derivable from additional capital, to a rate corresponding to the low strength of the desire of accumulation : and the importation of foreign capital, which renders the increase of production no longer exclusively dependent on the thrift or providence of the inhabitants themselves, while it places before them a stimulating example, and by instilling new ideas and breaking the chains of habit, if not by improving the actual condition...
Page 86 - To propose that Great Britain should voluntarily give up all authority over her colonies, and leave them to elect their own magistrates, to enact their own laws, and to make peace and war as they might think proper, would be to propose such a measure as never was and never will be adopted by any nation in the world.
Informations bibliographiques
| Titre | Utilitarianism and Empire G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series |
| Rédacteurs | Bart Schultz, Georgios Varouxakis |
| Éditeur | Lexington Books, 2005 |
| ISBN | 073911087X, 9780739110874 |
| Longueur | 263 pages |
| Exporter la citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |