Abstract

Utilitarian Evolution

This article presents information on the book "The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism," by Elie Halévy. It is opined that as an account of utilitarian evolution there has been nothing that could even pretend to rival this book. Built upon a wide knowledge, not merely of the printed sources, but also of the mass of Bentham manuscripts at University College, London, it is an indispensable book. Mary Morris has translated it admirably, though the author misses in her edition three of the four important appendices to the first volume of the French original. There are two things outstanding in Mr. Halévy's account of Benthamism. The first is his insistence on the action and reaction between French and English thought and second is his explanation of the effect of achievement in the physical sciences upon effort in the social realm.