ABSTRACT
On numerous occasions in the preceding chapters the early development of modern social science was described as taking place in an era that was powerfully influenced by the philosophy of utilitarianism. In the present chapter we shall examine this aspect of the history and philosophy of social science, which requires that we pay more attention than we have heretofore to that branch of philosophy called ‘ethics’. Our main interest in this book centres upon epistemology, but just as we found it necessary in the previous chapter to give some consideration to metaphysics, so we must now do likewise for ethics. Utilitarianism was the first and most important attempt to develop a thoroughly secular theory of ethics, oriented to man’s palpable welfare in this world rather than to any presumed requirements of his transcendent spirit or his relation to God. This alone is sufficient to make utilitarianism an important part of the intellectual history of the West with special significance for any efforts to develop scientific theories of social phenomena.
