'one of the few indisputable classics in the history of moral philosophy'. The first edition of this systematic study of ethics often considered the 'best treatise on moral theory that has ever been written' (C.D. Broad).

Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900) was Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1884 until his death, where he taught a young Bertrand Russell and was a member of the secretive intellectual society, the Cambridge Apostles. The Methods of Ethics is his major work, and attempts to explain how individuals make moral choices, deriving a theory of ethics which could determine 'right conduct in any particular case'. It's greatest achievement was proposing a 'morality of Common Sense' in which 'Utilitarianism is naturally introduced as a method for deciding between different conflicting claims' (p.424). As such, he is generally regarded as the last of the great Utilitarian philosophers of the nineteenth century.

Wisely considered 'one of the few indisputable classics in the history of moral philosophy' (ODNB).

First edition; 8vo (22.5 x 14.5 cm); presentation bookplate to front pastedown; diced purple calf for Harrow School, school badge to corners of upper and lower panels, gilt spine in 6 compartments, with alternating design of school badge and articulated line, all edges gilt, minor wear to extremities, very good; xxiii, [1], 473, [1]pp.