We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2023
People in the West generally hold that the whole duty of man is to promote the happiness of the majority of mankind, and happiness is supposed to mean only physical happiness and economic prosperity. If the laws of morality are broken in the conquest of this happiness, it does not matter very much. Again, as the object sought to be attained is the happiness of the majority, Westerners do not think there is any harm if this is secured by sacrificing a minority. The consequences of this line of thinking are writ large on the face of Europe. This exclusive search for physical and economic well-being prosecuted in disregard of morality is contrary to divine law, as some wise men in the West have shown. One of these was John Ruskin who contends in Unto This Last that men can be happy only if they obey the moral law.
– M. K. Gandhi, “Unto This Last: A Paraphrase”The ideas of English social critic and reformer, John Ruskin (1819–1900) show elements of modernity and remarkable originality which, in contrast with many other critics of early capitalism, make reading his works both current and highly stimulating. This is particularly true of Unto This Last, his economic and social commentary magnum opus. We will consider two aspects of his thought from this book – the motives for work and wealth – which we consider particularly significant and prophetic for our present-day economy and society.
Ruskin was both a critic of capitalism – because of workers’ conditions in factories – and a critic of the economic theory of his time, that of David Ricardo, Thomas Robert Malthus and particularly that of John Stuart Mill. Today he would have been even more critical of our capitalism and economic theory, which have exacerbated those vices he identified and stigmatized in his own generation. From this perspective Ruskin was on the side of the utopian socialists (like Robert Owen, he tried to constitute an ideal community of workers), Karl Marx, US President Andrew Johnson and, in Italy, Arturo Labriola, Achille Loria, Ugo Rabbeno and the many theorists of cooperation, as well as social Christians like Giuseppe Toniolo (the Gospels and the biblical tradition are essential background for understanding Ruskin’s criticism of capitalism).
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
