engleski

Henry R. West, An Introduction to Mill's Utilitatrian Ethics

Henry R. West, An Introduction to Mill's Utilitarian Ethics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004, xii, 216 pp. With this book which is primarly intended as a textbook for students in philosophy Henry R. West, professor of philosophy at Macalester College in Minnesota, has comprised his occupation with Mill’ s philosophy for more than forty years. His Harvarad doctoral theses (1964) was on utilitarian ethics and since then he has continually published papers on the same topic. The present Introduction is a clearly written and up-to-date presentation of the main ideas we find in Mill’ s Utilitarianism. It can serve as a commentary to the text. But at the same time it is extremly Mill-friendly – West defends Mill against his critics, without leaving out any opportunity to emphasize his sympathy for Mill’ s position. The structure of the Introduction is very simple and user-friendly. The first chapter deals with Mill’ s life and philosophical background. Succeeding chapters almost exactly correspond to the chapters of Utilitarianism. Mill’ s essay is the most widely read presentation of utilitarian ethics. Nearly all modern introductory courses in ethics include Mill – together with Aristotle and Kant – as one of the main classical theories to be considered. In an “ Appendix” West helps readers who are less familiar with Mill’ s work, reviewing in detail the structure and arguments of Utilitarianism. ... Henry R. West has written an excellent introduction to Mill’ s utilitarian ethics. Readers critical of utilitarianism might knit their brows because of West’ s apologetic approach to Mill. But any reader interested in classical utilitarianism welcome this introduction for the simple reason that it guides us back to Mill’ s text and his original argument. West’ s presentation is clear and supported by good arguments. There is only a negligible technical problem, third and fourth sections of “ Introduction” (p. 6) call for a small correction. I do not hesitate to recommend the book to everyone interested in Mill’ s philosophy.

Ethics; Utilitarianism; J.St.Mull

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