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Sidgwick's first explicit statement of the utilitarian position, in an essay presented to the Metaphysical Society in 1873, provides a lucid overview of the errors to be avoided and the terms to be clarified in any adequate account of the subject. As a précis of the comprehensive treatment of utilitarianism that would soon appear in The Methods of Ethics, this essay should serve as a useful guide to that work.
Although Sidgwick had been defending utilitarianism throughout the 1860s, this paper represents a kind of epitome of his thinking at the time he was completing The Methods of Ethics. The paper was given to the ‘Metaphysical Society’, and is marked ‘Private’ and ‘To be read on Tuesday, December 16, 1873. At the Grosvenor Hotel, at 8:30 p.m.’
