The English Utilitarians, Some Recent Reconsiderations

In 1900, perhaps the greatest Victorian historian of ideas, Leslie Stephen, released his three-volume English Utilitarians . Coming to grips with political thought century that had just ended, he believed, required considering “dominant beliefs adherents this school.” So privileged a point access was offered by what we would now call “classical utilitarianism” study it could serve as “sequel” previous History Thought in Eighteenth Century The utilitarians, Stephen confident, kind synecdoche for whole age. Further, if utilitarians did not grasp truth, there no doubt their “creed” make up part “definitive system” arrive due time.