Utilitarianism has been the most influential normative ethical theory taking the teleological approach in modern times. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), a British ethical and legal philosopher, first proposed this theory in his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789). However today the short treatise Utilitarianism (1863), written by the British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-73), is considered the classic statement of the theory. Utilitarianism continues to be one of the most widely used normative theories in current work by moral philosophers.