Overview
Henry Sidgwick's The Methods of Ethics gave the problems of ethics the form in which they have dominated British and American philosophy ever since. In this historical study of Sidgwick's philosophy, J.B. Schneewind demonstrates how Sidgwick's work developed rationally out of the work of his predecessors and examines the reasoning underlying Sidgwick's arguments and conclusions. Beginning with an overview of Sidgwick's intellectual development, moving on to a philosophical commentary on the Methods, and concluding with an investigation of Sidgwick's response to evolutionism, idealism, and the writing of his History of Ethics, Schneewind offers a sound historical grasp of the problems Sidgwick was trying to solve as well as a clear understanding of the solutions he offered.