Impartiality in Context: Grounding Justice in a Pluralist World

many of the religious utilitarians, Gay was a cleric and philosopher associated with the University of Cambridge. It is not clear just why utilitarianism emerged in Cambridge at this time, though one or two hints can be gleaned from Crimmins's analysis. For instance, he points out that for the religious utilitarians the belief in an afterlife, where rewards and punishments would be dispensed, produced a harmonization of self-interest with social interest, thus solving one of the 'pivotal problems of eighteenth-century ethics'. In addition, notes Crimmins, utilitarianism gave the Church a role in preaching Christian morality, though he fails to explain why this was of advantage specifically to Anglican moralists and theologians. Later exponents of the religious variant of utilitarianism essentially built upon and elaborated the thesis outlined by Gay, although rule utilitarianism, suggests Crimmins, was an innovation introduced by Tucker, and subsequently adopted by Paley.