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Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Utilitarianism
Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Utilitarianism Author:James E. Crimmins, Douglas G. Long Jeremy Bentham coined the term 'utilitarian' in 1781, but the idea of 'utility' as a value, goal or principle in political, moral or economic life has a long and rich history. The Encyclopedia of Utilitarianism will capture the complex developmental history and the multi-faceted character of utilitarianism in its various contexts and forms more ... more »completely than any previous source. Studies of utilitarianism hitherto have been notably compartmentalised, focusing on utilitarian ethics, or the socio-political utilitarianism epitomized in Benthamism, or the genesis of Austrian jurisprudence, but never making these various aspects available for comparative study within a single work. The Encyclopedia will not only be a unique and powerful reference work, but also an intrinsically interesting and illuminating set of articles, appealing to an exceptionally wide interdisciplinary readership. The Encyclopedia will include entries on the authors and texts that are recognised as having built the tradition of utilitarian thinking, as well as on the issues and critics that have arisen at every stage of the development of that tradition. Academics in search of fresh juxtapositions of issues and arguments, and a broader readership interested in the arithmetic of representative democracy, 'hard cases' in ethics or the economic conception of the human individual as a 'rational utility-maximising agent' will welcome this unique reference work.« less