This text presents a controversial analysis of the idea of utility, its role in the foundation of morality, and its connection with justice and liberty, from Hume's Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals to J.S. Mill's On Liberty and Utilitarianism. The book is situated within the philosophical context of the earlier Epicurean tradition with its emphasis on pleasure, pain and utility on which the main figures discussed in this book - Hume, Smith, Helvetius, Bentham, Paley, and J.S. Mill - drew. The author defines a classical utilitarian tradition, which in turn is defended as a coherent...