Idealism and Hedonism

Abstract

In the 1870s there was a peculiar episode in British philosophy which still has odd resonances. Two philosophers were working simultaneously on treatises on ethics. The first to be published was Henry Sidgwick’s Methods of Ethics in 1874. The second was Francis Bradley’s Ethical Studies, published in 1876. According to Bradley, one of the more famous essays in Ethical Studies — ‘Pleasure for Pleasure’s sake’ — had already been completed by 1874. Bradley, however, added a note to the end of the essay. Though brief, it concluded that Sidgwick ‘had left the question [of utilitarianism] exactly where he had found it’. Sidgwick reviewed Bradley’s Ethical studies in Mind in 1876, noting the addition to essay three. Bradley immediately responded in the same year of Mind. Sidgwick promptly fired a response to Bradley’s response. Bradley then followed this with a pamphlet in 1877. In redrafting his second edition of Methods of Ethics Sidgwick changed some passages in relation to Bradley’s objections, although it is not explicit. Sidgwick did not, however, actually respond to Bradley’s pamphlet. Schneewind comments that ‘perhaps he [Sidgwick] felt he would not maintain a proper tranquillity of temper himself if he tried a direct reply’ (Schneewind, 1977, p. 400).