Early Utilitarians

Ken Binmore is a mathematician turned economist and philosopher. He has held Chairs at the London School of Economics (UK), the University of Michigan (USA), and University College London (UK). He has been involved in a range of applied projects, including the design of major telecom auctions in various countries across the world. As a consequence of the $35 billion raised by the telecom auction he organized in the UK, he was described by Newsweek magazine as the “ruthless, poker-playing economist who destroyed the telecom industry”.  He has contributed to game theory, experimental economics, evolutionary biology and moral philosophy. His books include Natural Justice (OUP), Does Game Theory Work? (MIT Press),  A Very Short Introduction to Game Theory (OUP), Rational Decisions (PUP), Crooked Thinking or Straight Talk? (Springer), and Imaginary Philosophical Dialogues (Springer).

“The book covers an exhaustive set of ideas and debates reappearing–albeit in other forms–in later writings. … It can thus be particularly instructive for students already advanced in the study of economics, for specialists in game theory, and more generally, for any economist or researcher interested in the ideas of Rawls or Harsanyi.” (Virginie Gouverneur, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 29 (6), 2022)

• Introduction.- Shaftesbury.- Hutcheson.- Helvétius.- Hume.- Beccaria.- Godwin.- Bentham.- Mill.- Jevons.- Sidgwick.- Edgeworth.- Hare.- Rawls.- Harsanyi.