Utilitarianism

London: Parker, Son, and Bourn, 1863. Very Good. London: Parker, Son, and Bourn, 1863. First Edition. Slim octavo; publisher's brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine, brown coated endpapers; [4],95,[1],4pp. Cloth margins rubbed and a bit worn at spine ends and corners with smallish chip at spine crown, contemporary ownership signature of a William Eyre to front free endpaper verso and later signature of a W.D. Stainer at head of title page. Still an About Very Good, unsophisticated copy of this fragile volume, contents clean and sound.

The author's succinct classic defense of utilitarian ethical theory, originally serialized in three parts in "Fraser's Magazine." Mill explains the controversy around the concept of utilitarianism as being in direct opposition to pleasure and happiness, poking holes in "the ultimate sanction of the principle of utility" before concluding with the chapter on "the only real difficulty" of Utilitarianism, "On the Connexion Between Justice and Utility.