Pigou' s ethical thought and welfare economics

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Although Pigou is the founder of welfare economics and a venerable authority of the discipline, there have been few comprehensive studies on his welfare economic thought. Specifically, the sluggishness of studies on the aspect of his moral philosophy is grave. Therefore, I tried to re-construct his moral philosophy that he was originally holding through the examination of several documents written in the early stage of his academic life. In consequence, it has been demonstrated that Pigou' s ethical thought on which his welfare economics lies is Ideal Utilitarianism which pursues multiple ends or welfare as intrinsic good. In this point, Pigou is similar to G. E. Moore. This result contributes to correcting considerably the typical understanding in which Pigou is considered as Benthamite hedonistic utilitarian referring only to economic documents.