In this Broadview Edition, Colin Heydt provides a substantial introduction that will enable readers to understand better the polemical context for Utilitarianism. Heydt shows, for example, how Mill’s moral philosophy grew out of political engagement, rather than exclusively out of a speculative interest in determining the nature of morality. Appendices include precedents to Mill’s work, reactions to Utilitarianism, and related writings by Mill.
Colin Heydt is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Florida. He is the author of Rethinking Mill’s Ethics: Character and Aesthetic Education (Continuum, 2006).