Mr Hermans not only demonstrates that utilitarianism is much more interesting and wide ranging than is commonly assumed, he also shows that it is not justified to criticise Mill for being an ‘unsystematic’ thinker. (…) The Mill that Mr Hermans presents in his erudite and excellently written book made great demands on himself, such as ordinary mortals could never satisfy; however, he also was a very prolific and stimulating philosopher, who but little resembled the wooden Victorian schoolmaster looking down on us in photographs and paintings.

Analysing the works of social theorists such as Herbert Spencer, Alfred Russell Wallace, Ernst Haeckel, and Alfred Schäffle, as well as Darwin’s own work, Dr Hermans concludes that, although not a homogeneous ideology, different versions of social Darwinism all centred around the general notion that modern society could not, in the long run, disrupt natural selection without grave consequences.