What we commonly demand or long for, under the name of Ideal Justice, is not so much the realisation of Freedom, as the distribution of good and evil according to Desert: indeed it is as a means to this latter end that Freedom is often advocated; for it is said that if we protect men completely from mutual interference, each will reap the good and bad consequences of his own conduct, and so be happy or unhappy in proportion to his deserts.

If there is one aspect that sums up both the brilliance and difficulty of this book, it would be its thoroughness. Sidgwick comprehensively covers all the major ethical theories up to that time, objections to them, and rigorous responses to each. Many reviewers describe The Methods of Ethics as simply a defense of utilitarianism, but I think this is an unfair characterization. While Sidgwick does ultimately advocate universal hedonism as the most coherent ethical system, he is rigorous in his accounts of moral intuitionism and egoistic hedonism. The work is really more of a critique of the major ethical theories of the time than simply a defense of utilitarianism. Reading Sidgwick is not like reading Kant, Mill, or other moral philosophers because he seems ultimately more concerned with the practical application of ethics and its concomitance with common sense, whereas most ethical theorists are seeking to defend their theories wholesale, regardless of conflicts with practical implementation. Sidgwick seems comfortable admitting the weaknesses in the ethical system he advocates, simply because the other methods he examines have more. ( )

Classic developing approach which many others used in developing intuitionism. ( )