William Thompson (philosopher) - Ideas

Ideas

An enthusiastic student of the writers and ideas of the Enlightenment, particularly Condorcet, Thompson became a convinced egalitarian and democrat. His support for the French Revolution earned him the label of "Red Republican" from Cork society and his support for advocates of Catholic emancipation in elections further alienated him from the rest of his wealthy Protestant kith and kin.

Thompson was greatly impressed by the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham with whom he corresponded and established a friendship, later staying at the English philosopher's house for several months in 1821-22 while visiting London. As well as Bentham, Thompson read and corresponded with other utilitarian contemporaries such as James Mill and was influenced, both positively and negatively, by William Godwin and Thomas Malthus. His desire to overcome the limitations of Godwin's "intellectual speculations" and Malthus's "mechanical speculations" led him to propose a new synthesis: social science - Thompson was the first to introduce this term - would combine political economy's concern with scientific materialism with utilitarianism's concern with rational morality.