One, discussed at length by Mr Bronk, comes from an alliance of utilitarianism and Adam Smith.

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Professor Williams made profound contributions to moral theory, most effectively in his critique of utilitarianism.

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In it, he explores the centuries-old, and still raging, philosophical arguments over the limitations of utilitarianism and its economic descendant, cost-benefit analysis.

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He promoted the idea that the rightness or wrongness of an action depended on its consequences, an ethical theory known as utilitarianism.

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But at the witching hour, I did drink with maniacal utilitarianism.

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News of utilitarianism's demise has, however, yet to reach all economists.

ECONOMIST: Bernard Williams

Mr Bronk says that utilitarianism (the idea that society should aim to achieve the greatest good of the greatest number) supplied Smith (who explained the market system) with moral content.

ECONOMIST: What��s progress?

It all makes me think of British philosopher John Stuart Mill, who described the social theory of utilitarianism, which holds that one must always act so as to produce the greatest aggregate happiness for the greatest number of people.

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She has obviously internalized its dictates and knows to be careful about what she says and how she says it, even as the stirrings of her own heart begin to lead her away from the cruel utilitarianism of her world.

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With Hard Times (1854) - a critique of the political theory of utilitarianism which holds that the proper course of action is the one that seeks the greatest good for the greatest number of people - Dickens set himself against thinkers like Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Malthus and Adam Smith and their influence on government policy.

BBC: Charles Dickens