Abstract

Not all moral philosophers of the century shared this preoccupation; one thinks of non-conforming figures as diverse as Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche or Spencer. Existentialism has roots in the ethically fertile soil of the 19th Century, as does libertarianism. However in the present chapter we are concerned with those who did. They can be seen as falling into four broad traditions: German, especially Hegelian, idealism, Marxism (which in some ways continued it), utilitarianism and positivism. All four of these traditions, in their various ways, take it that the social good is something of fundamental ethical importance2 and all are concerned with the social dimensions of individuals’ good