The Nineteenth Century · School
Utilitarianism
Made the greatest happiness of the greatest number the standard of morality; Mill joined it to individual liberty.
Representative figures · 4
Jeremy Bentham边沁
Founder of utilitarianism: 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number' is the sole standard of law and morals, and natural rights are 'nonsense upon stilts'.
John Stuart Mill约翰·斯图亚特·密尔
The classic statement of liberalism: coercion of an individual is justified only to prevent harm to others. He refined utilitarianism and cast the first parliamentary vote for women's rights.
Derek Parfit帕菲特
Personal identity is not what matters, psychological continuity is; future people count as much as present ones; moral philosophy is a young science and secular ethics has only begun. He wrote two books in his life.
Peter Singer彼得·辛格
Animal liberation, the drowning child and global poverty, effective altruism: he carried utilitarianism from the lecture hall to the street and the wallet, the most influential and most controversial applied ethicist alive.