Sidgwick and Contemporary Utilitarianism

by Mariko Nakano-Okuno

This is one of the rare academic studies on what John Rawls, Peter Singer and Derek Parfit acknowledge as the finest book in ethics – The Methods of Ethics written by Henry Sidgwick. With a rather shocking conclusion that ‘none of us can match Sidgwick’, Mariko Nakano-Okuno elaborately and lucidly analyzes Henry Sidgwick’s impacts on contemporary ethics, including critical reassessment of the utilitarian philosophy of R. M. Hare, J. C. Harsanyi and R.B. Brandt. 

Sidgwick and Contemporary Utilitarianism will be a must-read book for all professional philosophers as well as students concerned with Sidgwick’s moral philosophy, utilitarian ethics, and the theoretical foundations of ethics in general. Its language is plain and reader-friendly, which enables philosophy beginners to understand the fundamental questions of ethics more easily and clearly than ever.

See: amazon.co.uk 

11th International Conference

“The Ethics of Economic Development”

Call for Papers

The 11th Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies (ISUS) will be held on23rd-25th June 2011 at San Romano Conference Centre, Lucca, Italy. The Conference will beorganized by the Department of Economics of the University of Pisa.The International Society for Utilitarian Studies – ISUS – provides a forum for scholarly debate and research on utilitarianism and its historical development, and on its present-day relevance in such fields as ethics, politics, law, economics, and public policy. [ISUS web site] ISUS also publishes the journal Utilitas, a leading international review presenting original research in all aspects of utilitarian theory and encompassing the disciplines of moral philosophy, economics, psychology, political theory, intellectual history, law and jurisprudence. Conference registration includes a one-year ISUS membership and subscription to Utilitas.

ISUS XI is locally sponsored by the Municipality of Lucca, The Fondazione Campus Lucca, and the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca, Livorno e Pisa. ISUS XI welcomes papers and proposed sessions on all subjects related to utilitarianism and in all areas of moral philosophy, economics, psychology, political theory, intellectual history, law and jurisprudence.

The special theme of ISUS XI will be: “The Ethics of Economic Development”.

Some plenary and special sessions will be organized around this theme. Papers and session proposals concerning “The Ethics of Economic Development” are welcome and subject to the same submission procedures as all other papers.

To submit a proposal please send an abstract of about 400 words for a paper and/or a proposal of about 600 words for a session (together with the abstracts of the session papers) no later than the 28th February 2011 to: mel.guidi@ec.unipi.it , or mel.guidi58@gmail.com.

The following Keynote speakers agreed to address the theme of the conference. They are:

Professor Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia University)Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University; Special Advisor to the Secretary general of UN Ban Ki-moon.

Professor Peter Singer (Princeton University)Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), University of Melbourne.

Professor Gustaf Arrhenius (Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Stockholm University)Torgny Segerstedt Pro Futura Fellow e Professor of Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University.

Professor Frederick Rosen (University College London)Emeritus Professor of History of Political Thought, former General Editor of The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham.

Professor Nadia Urbinati (Columbia University)Professor of Political Sciences.

The Committee of ISUS will award a prize of £250 for the best paper presented at the Conference by a graduate student.

Important dates: 28th February 2011: Deadline for abstract submissions. Notification ofaccepted/rejected abstracts 30th April 2011: Deadline for sending full papers 15th June 2011Local Organizer: Marco E.L. Guidi (University of Pisa, Department of Economics)

A conference web site will be soon announced