Evolution of Teaching Philosophy: Mill, Grote, Sidgwick

1. Utilitarianism, the Moral Sciences, and Political Economy: Mill-Grote-Sidgwick Keith Tribe Istvan Hont Memorial Lecture 11 May 2015

2. MGS

3. MGS 1. Teaching in Cambridge • In early 19th century Senate House Examination in Mathematics only. Perhaps half of resident students never graduated. • 1822 Classical Tripos introduced to be sat after passing Senate House Examination; Previous Examination introduced 1822, mid-century became the ordinary degree with further examination in same subjects, plus attendance at and examination on one course of Professorial lectures. • All teaching done in colleges; heavy use of private coaches. Professorial lectures to 1850s occasional, many lapsed, not linked to teaching. 1852 Royal Commission proposed teaching by Professors and Lecturers after Previous. Resisted. • College focus constrained any extension of teaching; Moral Sciences teaching still college based in 1893. Henry Fawcett elected Professor Political Economy 1863; directed teaching to poll men until 1876. • 1683 foundation of Knightbridge Chair as Moral Theology and Casuistical Divinity; lapsed, revived by Whewell 1838 as Moral Theology and Casuistry. Grote sought permission to change it to Moral Philosophy 1857, refused. • Moral Sciences Tripos founded 1848 – like Classics, not a degree in itself, but optional honours, taken after successfully completing Mathematical Tripos.

4. MGS • Subjects for Moral Sciences in original scheme: • Moral Philosophy • Political Economy • Modern History • General Jurisprudence • Laws of England • Up to 1859 only 66 candidates for Moral Sciences Honours; none in 1860. • Grote recommended that Pass with Honours would qualify for BA; establishment of Moral Sciences Board; and dropping of Laws of England in favour of Mental Philosophy. Approved February 1860. • March 1867 Moral Sciences Board recommended that History and Jurisprudence should be excluded, and political philosophy, previously grouped with History, be grouped with Moral Philosophy in the Moral Sciences Tripos. • Moral Sciences thus became four subjects: Moral and Political Philosophy, Mental Philosophy, Logic, Political Economy. Further change in regs. 1883 dividing degree into two parts.

5. MGS • Grote died 1866, succeeded in Knightbridge Chair by F. D. Maurice (1805-1872); who in turn succeeded by T. R. Birks 1872 (1810-1883); who then succeeded by Sidgwick 1883. • Both Maurice and Birks had active ecclesiastical careers, and little concerned with general development of Moral Sciences teaching. With accession of Sidgwick this altered. • During 1880s and 1890s movement for reform in Cambridge came to focus around structure of the teaching; hence the nature and prospective function of the Moral Sciences can be read out of the organisation of the Tripos, independently of student numbers. • As successor to Fawcett, Marshall made training economists his priority: made this clear in his Inaugural Lecture of 1885. • Marshall chafed at constrictions imposed on this by the Moral Sciences Tripos; but most of his eminent students educated in this way: Nicholson, Foxwell, J. N. Keynes, Chapman, Flux, Macgregor, Pigou.

6. MGS 2. Biography: Grote, Sidgwick, Marshall • John Grote (1813-1866) • Entered Trinity College 1831, took Maths and Classics Triposes 1835 • Elected Fellow of Trinity 1837; ordained 1842, given college living in Trumpington 1847. • Succeeded Whewell 1855 as Knightbridge Professor; presented comprehensive lectures, rather than the annual dozen of Whewell. • Prime contributor to reform of Moral Sciences Tripos 1859-60 • Created Grote Club, later Grote Society, as focus for discussion of moral philosophy – Venn, Mayor, Sidgwick, Mayor, Marshall, Clifford. • Drafted critique of Mill's essays on “Utilitarianism” 1862; edited by Mayor as Examination of the Utilitarian Philosophy (1870)

7. MGS • Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900) • 1852 to Rugby, strongly influenced by Edward White Benson; teacher at Rugby, later his brother-in-law and then Archbishop of Canterbury. • Entered Trinity College Cambridge 1855; 1859 33rd Wrangler and top of the Classics Tripos. • 1859 Fellow of Trinity, Assistant Tutor in Classics • Early 1860s studied Hebrew and Arabic to further study of Christianity. • 1865 examined for Moral Sciences Tripos for first time, 1867 began lecturing on Mental and Moral Philosophy • Resigned Fellowship 1869, became college lecturer in Moral Sciences. • 1869 assisted in creation of women's lectures, and established a house for women students at his own expense. 1875 Newnham Hall Company formed. Women admitted to university examinations 1881. • 1874 published his Methods of Ethics • April 1876 married Eleanor Balfour, sister of Arthur Balfour (a former pupil of Sidgwick). • 1883 Knightbridge Professor; and Principles of Political Economy • 1891 Elements of Politics • Died 1900; Methods of Ethics republished in 7th edition 1907

8. MGS • Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) • Entered St. John's 1861; Second Wrangler 1865; elected Fellow same year. • 1868 College Lecturer in Moral Sciences • Groenewegen p. 141: At this time, displaced Mill’s rational hedonism with moral imperative, the duty to behave rationally in ordinary economic matters, households making decisions on saving and spending which took account of real present and future needs. • Lectures to Women began Lent Term 1871; 1873-1876 funded prize essay for best female moral sciences student. • 1875 Marshall toured USA, visiting economists and visiting factories. • Coached Mary Paley on political economy for Moral Sciences Tripos; in 1876 Mary commissioned by James Stuart to write political economy primer for Extension lecturers. • 1876 Alfred and Mary became engaged, textbooks became joint project. Married 1877, surrendered Fellowship, became Principal of UC Bristol. • Economics of Industry (1879). Also fell ill, resigned 1881; went to Sicily. • 1882 to Balliol as successor to Arnold Toynbee. • November 1884 Henry Fawcett died; Marshall elected Professor of Political Economy. • Principles of Economics Vol. I (1890) • Formation of British Economic Association 1890, Economic Journal 1891. • Economics Tripos 1903 • Retired 1908, succeeded by Pigou. • Industry and Trade (1919), Money, Credit and Commerce (1923).

9. MGS • John Neville Keynes (1852-1949) • Entered Pembroke with Maths Scholarship 1872 • 1873 decided to follow the Moral Sciences Tripos • 1873 studied moral philosophy and logic, attended lectures by Sidgwick and Venn; Easter Term 1874 lectures on Elementary Political Economy from Marshall; Sidgwick on Jeremy Bentham; Venn on formal logic. • Took finals 1875. • August 1876 elected Fellow of Pembroke. • Indian Civil Service teaching • 1883 John Maynard Keynes born • Studies and Exercises in Logic (1884) • Scope and Method of Political Economy (1891) • Elected Registrary, University of Cambridge 1910

10. MGS 3. J. S. Mill's Utilitarianism • Remarks on Bentham included in Bulwer Lytton's England and the English (1833). • Bentham said to confuse principle of utility with that of evaluation of consequences; and lack of insight into human nature. • Also, Bentham argues that conduct determined by prospect of pleasure or pain that will be consequences of action. But frequently pain or pleasure precedes action. • Sometimes conduct determined by an interest; sometimes by an impulse. • Also rejects Bentham's universalism. • Utilitarianism – published in three parts Fraser's Magazine October-December 1861; republished as book 1863. • “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. … pleasure, and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends...” (CW 10 pp. 210)

11. MGS 4. John Grote's Critique of Mill • An Examination of the Utilitarian Philosophy (1870) – drafted 1862. • Argues that while virtue or right action is the source of human happiness, fact that it is does not constitute its virtue. • If man has passed along a path of improvement, why we call it improvement cannot be judged from the path followed; need to have reasons for calling it so. • We need an idea of improvement, of what ought to be, to judge what is. • Utilitarianism: “Professing to keep to fact and observation, it understands by the name of 'happiness' something which it (really) not only shows that men try to gain, but assumes that it is desirable they should.” (p. 3) • The point of moral difficulty is not whether an action is useful or not, but for whom it is useful.

12. MGS Grote's “Five Problems with Happiness” • 1. Happiness is different for different people. • 2. We know very little of how a person can bring about own happiness. • 3. Do not know how far an individual's happiness is result of own constitution and temper. • 4. Have no means of deciding whether we should try to be happy under existing circumstances, or change the circumstances. • 5. If there are different grades of happiness, we have no way of knowing whether we should settle for achieving a lower grade, or strive for a higher. • The chief objection to utilitarianism arises from difficulty of determining what happiness consists in, not from its apparent difficulty of attainment; and of comparing the happiness of one person with another (p. 32).

13. MGS 5. Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics (1874) • “Ethics may be defined as the Science of Practice or Conduct...” (p. 1) Seeks to determine “what ought to exist, not what does exist.” • Nominally, the book examines three “methods”: • Egoism, aka Hedonism • Intuitionism • Utilitarianism • But actually third only distinguished from first in distributional problem identified by Grote: to relate individual action to Happiness of all when action necessarily individual. • Are, consequently, only two methods: empirical and idealist. • And, as Grote demonstrated, the “empirical” cannot escape the “ideal”.

14. MGS 6. The Moral Sciences in the 1880s and 1890s • Sidgwick, Principles of Political Economy (1883) pp. 591. • Sidgwick, Elements of Politics (1891) pp. 623. • Political Economy in Part I is clearly built around Sidgwick's Principles. • Advanced Political Economy in Part II is primarily Marshallian. • Part I Examination, two papers on each of: • Psychology including Ethical Psychology; Logic and Methodology; Political Economy; plus one Essay paper. • Part II Examination, divided into two groups: • A. One paper each on Metaphysics, Political Philosophy*, Ethics* • B. One or Two Special Subjects: two papers each on History of Philosophy; Advanced Logic and Methodology; Advanced Psychology and Psychophysics; Advanced Political Economy*; plus one Essay paper on all topics. • Those taking Advanced Political Economy take Political Philosophy and Ethics, instead of Metaphysics and Ethics as all other students.

15. MGS 7. Jevonian Economics • 1862 Jevons sent two papers to be read at session of Section F of British Association meeting in Cambridge; “Brief Account of a General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy”, later published 1866. • 1871, approach expanded into Theory of Political Economy. • On strength of success of his Coal Question (1865) appointed 1866 Prof. of Logic, Mental and Moral Philosophy at Owens College, Manchester. 1875-1880 Prof. at UCL. • Edgeworth's New and Old Methods of Ethics (1877) – comparison of Barratt, Physical Ethics, and Sidgwick, Methods of Ethics. • Edgeworth's Mathematical Psychics (1881). • Wicksteed, Alphabet of Economic Science (1888)