Sidgwick studies do not give the appearance of great activity at the moment – at least not in comparison with the studies of other British philosophers. We now have a superb modern edition of the works of John Stuart Mill, the Locke edition is moving rapidly, a Hobbes edition has begun, we are to expect a Hume edition, and there are several volumes of the Bentham edition. There is a Hobbes journal, a Locke journal, a Hume journal, and a journal for Bentham–Mill studies. Hobbes, Hume, Bentham, and Mill produced enough philosophical discussion to win places in a series of books studying their arguments, and Locke joins the others in being honored as a past master. Sidgwick has not attracted this kind of attention. Happily, The Methods of Ethics and the History are again in print (and The Elements of Politics may be reprinted), but no one seems to be planning a variorum edition of the Methods, the rest of the books are unobtainable, the essays and reviews have never been completely collected, and the only biography is the one put out just after Sidgwick's death by his wife and brother.

The conference that was the occasion for the present volume was, its organizer claimed, the very first meeting ever devoted solely to Sidgwick. He was in all probability right. What the fact indicates, however, is not so much neglect of Sidgwick as something about the way in which we are able to benefit from him.