  The history of ethical theory shows that there are many ways to think about beneficence and benevolence. Several landmark ethical theories have embraced these moral notions as central categories, while proposing strikingly different conceptual and moral analyses. Prime examples are found in the moral-sentiment theory of David Hume, where benevolence is the central “principle” of human nature in his moral psychology, and in utilitarian theories such as John Stuart Mill’s, where the principle of utility is itself a strong and very demanding normative principle of beneficence. In these writers beneficence is close to the essence of morality. Other writers, including Kant, have given less ascendency to beneficence, but still give it a central place in morality.