Colloque international - L’utilitarisme en débats_12 et 13 décembre 2024

An international and interdisciplinary conference reassessing the legacies of utilitarianism since the 1820s.

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1. Receptions and transformations of utilitarianism

This panel examines the immediate legacies of Bentham’s thought in Britain and in North America in the 1820s and 1830s and the material and political conditions of this reception.

2. Utilitarianism and Socialism

In the 1820s and 1830s, utilitarian arguments circulated in reformist circles alongside other attempts at building a « science of society ». This panel examines the political, personal and intellectual connections between utilitarian and early socialists movements in France and in Britain.

3. John Stuart Mill and Utilitarianism

This panel reassesses the nature of J.S. Mill’s utilitarianism and his transformation of Bentham’s ideas in the light of recent research on gender, ethics and religion.

4. Utilitarianism and Justice

From Sidgwick to Parfit, twentieth-century political and legal thought has continued to engage with utilitarian and consequentialist theses.

PROGRAMME

Thursday, December 12
1. Receptions, Transformations and Applications of Utilitarianism

9h. Introduction
– Emmanuelle de Champs, Claude Gautier, Françoise Orazi

9h30. Keynote lecture - Utilitarian Philosophy - Receptions, Transformations, Applications
- James E. Crimmins, Huron University College, Canada

11h. Producting the Bowring edition
- Tim Causer, Bentham Project, University College London

11h45. Bentham’s Constitutive Power and the Failure of Philosophic Radicalism (1820-1832)
- Peter Niesen, University of Hamburg and Collegium de Lyon

2. Utilitarianism and Socialism
Chair : Myriam-Isabelle Ducrocq, Université Paris Nanterre

14h. Anna Doyle Wheeler and the making of utilitarian feminism
- Ophélie Siméon, Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle

14h45. Trois thèses sur les relations entre utilitarisme et socialisme (1817-1840)
- Benjamin Bourcier, Université Catholique de Lille

15h30. Voluntariness, & Cooperation: William Thompson’s utilitarian Socialism
- Vuko Andric, University of Linköping and Philipp Schink, University of Oldenburg

16.45. L'égalité dans la tradition économique utilitariste
- Nathalie Sigot, Université Paris I and UMR Triangle

Friday, December 13
3. John Stuart Mill and Utilitarianism

9h30 Is Mill still a Utilitarian ?
Françoise Orazi, Lyon II

10h15. « The higher the kind of enjoyment, the greater the degree » : distinguer qualitativement les plaisirs selon Harriet Taylor et John Stuart Mill
- Aurélie Knüfer, Université Paul-Valéry (Montpellier) & Institut Universitaire de France

11h15. Can John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism take Dignity seriously?
- Antis Loizides, University of Cyprus

12h. John Stuart Mill et la religion
- Jean-Pierre Cléro, Université de Rouen

4. Utilitarianism and Justice

14h15. Keynote lecture. Sidgwick’s Parfit
- David Weinstein, Wake Forest University

15h15. Sidgwick, impartiality and close relations
- Christophe Salvat, CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université

16h. Inventer le droit constitutionnel et ne pas en vouloir: les ambiguïtés du constitutionnalisme de Bentham
- Guillaume Tusseau, École de droit de Sciences Po