Henry Sidgwick (May 31, 1838–August 28, 1900) was an English philosopher.

Biography

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He was born at Skipton in Yorkshire, where his father, the Rev. W Sidgwick (d. 1841), was headmaster of the grammar school. Henry himself was educated at Rugby (where his cousin, subsequently his brother-in-law, Edward White Benson – later Archbishop of Canterbury – was a master), and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his career was a brilliant one. While at Trinity, Sidgwick became a member of the Cambridge Apostles. In 1859 he was senior classic, 33rd wrangler, chancellor's medallist and Craven scholar. In the same year he was elected to a fellowship at Trinity, and soon afterwards became a lecturer in classics there, a post he held for ten years.

In 1869 he exchanged his lectureship for one in moral philosophy, a subject to which he had been turning his attention. In the same year, finding that he could no longer declare himself a member of the Church of England, he resigned his fellowship. He retained his lectureship, and in 1881 was elected an honorary fellow. In 1874 he published The Methods of Ethics (6th ed. 1901, containing emendations written just before his death), by common consent a major work, which made his reputation outside the university.

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