Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good - From the Panopticon to the Skinner Box and Beyond

"Nature has placed Man under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure" (Jeremy Bentham, 1789). How should we act, tossed about as we are by these two? Should we, as the utilitarian would have it, maximize pleasure for the greatest number? This elegant intellectual and cultural history traces the birth of utilitarian thinking in the seventeenth century to today's evolutionary theory, economics, and neuroscience, fields that have recently been drawn together, once again, under the banner of utility. The author is attentive not only to its subtle reach but also to the single moment when, with the dawn of informed consent in medical research, an anti-utilitarian attention to autonomy briefly surfaced. This is an important book about the rise, fall, resurrection--and dangers--of utilitarian reasoning in medicine.

About the author

Cathy Gere is associate professor of history at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism.

Product details

• Authors: Cathy Gere
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.10.2017
• EAN: 9780226501857
• ISBN: 978-0-226-50185-7
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 161 mm x 240 mm x 25 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); 20. Jahrhundert (1900 bis 1999 n. Chr.), History, MEDICAL / Ethics, SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects, SCIENCE / Research & Methodology, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, History and Archaeology, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General