The Decline Of Modern Rationalism And The Rise Of Empiricism

This thesis states and digs deeper the theory of utilitarianism from the following five aspects: the reason why utilitarianism appeared, the theoretic sources of utilitarianism, the decline of rationalism, the foundation of utilitarianism and Mill's contribution to it. Starting from the theory of utilitarianism, this thesis explains the profound thought in a simple way according to its origin, rise and climax. The first chapter discusses the reason why utilitarianism appeared and its background, including social conflicts for benefit and ethical relation changes. The second chapter discusses systematically the sources of utilitarianism from Epicurus'hedonistic in ancient Grace to Hobbes and Hume's utilitarianism in modern times. The third chapter is about how Benthan inherited Humes'empiricism and proposed utilitarianism to meet the need of time development. The fourth chapter addresses Mill's contribution to utilitarianism.