Utilitarianism and On Liberty

Including three of his most famous and important essays, Utilitarianism, On Liberty, and Essay on Bentham, along with formative selections from Jeremy Bentham and John Austin, this volume provides a uniquely perspicuous view of Mill's ethical and political thought.

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• Contains Mill's most famous and influential works, Utilitarianism and On Liberty as well as his important Essay on Bentham.
  
• Uses the 1871 edition of Utilitarianism, the last to be published in Mill's lifetime.
  
• Includes selections from Bentham and John Austin, the two thinkers who most influenced Mill.
  
• Introduction written by Mary Warnock, a highly respected figure in 20th-century ethics in her own right.
  
• Provides an extensive, up-to-date bibliography with the best scholarship on Mill, Bentham and Utilitarianism.

Introduction by Mary Warnock 1

BENTHAM

An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (chapters I–V) 17

MILL

Bentham (from Dissertations and Discussions, volume I) 52

On Liberty 88

Utilitarianism 181

Appendix

AUSTIN

The Province of Jurisprudence Determined. Lecture II 236

Bibliography 252

Chronological table 255

Index 257

"Anyone interested in the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill will be pleased to have the essential readings in one volume and grateful to Mary Warnock for her informative and insightful introduction." William H. Shaw, San Jose State University

"The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals Utility, or the 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." John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

"The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection." John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

Mary Warnock was Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge from 1984 until 1991. In 1985 she was created a Life Peer: Baroness Warnock of Weeke in the City of Winchester. Her publications include Ethics Since 1900 (1960), The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre (1963), Existentialist Ethics (1966), Existentialism (1970), and An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Ethics (2000). This book combines John Stuart Mill’s key writings, Utilitarianism, On Liberty, and ‘Essay on Bentham’, with formative selections from Mill’s greatest influences, Jeremy Bentham and John Austin, and a discerning introduction written by the renowned ethics scholar Mary Warnock. This combination provides a thorough and perspicuous view of Mill's thought. An extensive bibliography of the best scholarship on Mill, Bentham, and Utilitarianism makes this book even more useful for students.

This volume affords indispensable insight from – and into – one of the most profound and influential thinkers in Western philosophy.