The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and LegislationThe new critical edition of the works and correspondence of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) is being prepared and published under the supervision of the Bentham Committee of University College London. In spite of his importance as jurist, philosopher, and social scientist, and leader of the Utilitarian reformers, the only previous edition of his works was a poorly edited and incomplete one brought out within a decade or so of his death. Eight volumes of the new Collected Works, five of correspondence, and three of writings on jurisprudence, appeared between 1968 and 1981, published by the Athlone Press. Further volumes in the series since then are published by Oxford University Press. The overall plan and principles of the edition are set out in the General Preface to The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 1, which was the first volume of the Collected Works to be published. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Jeremy Bentham's best-known work, is a classic text in modern philosophy and jurisprudence. First published in 1789, it contains the important statement of the foundations of utilitarian philosophy and a pioneering study of crime and punishment, both of which remain at the heart of contemporary debates in moral and political philosophy, economics, and legal theory. Printed here in full is the definitive edition, edited by the distinguished scholars J. H. Burns and H. L. A. Hart. An introductory essay by Hart, first published in 1982 and a widely acknowledged classic in its own right, is reprinted here. It contains an important analysis of Bentham's principle of utility, theory of action, and an account of the relationship between law and morality. A new introduction by the leading Bentham scholar F. Rosen, specially written for this Clarendon Paperback edition, provides students with a helpful survey of Bentham's main ideas and an extensive bibliographical study of recent critical work on Bentham. Professor Rosen's essay also contains a new analysis of the principle of utility in Bentham's philosophy which is compared with its use in Hume and J. S. Mill. |
Contents
OF CIRCUMSTANCES INFLUENCING | lv |
FURTHER READING | lxxi |
BENTHAMS PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY | lxxix |
21 | lxxxix |
Connexion of this chapter with the preceding | 1 |
PREFACE | 4 |
Pleasures of wealth which are either of acquisition | 5 |
It depends upon what the act appears to be to him 126 | 6 |
Rule 7 Want of certainty must be made up in magnitude | 170 |
Rule 10 For the sake of quality increase in quantity | 171 |
Proportionality carried very far in the present workwhy 172 n 26 Auxiliary force of the physical moral and religious sanctions not here allowed forw... | 172 |
The nicety here observed vindicated from the charge of inutility | 173 |
OF THE PROPERTIES TO BE GIVEN TO A LOT OF PUNISHMENT | 175 |
Punishments which are apt to be deficient in this respect | 176 |
Property 3 Commensurability to other punishments | 177 |
Property 4 Characteristicalness | 178 |
The pleasures and pains which belong to the religious | 7 |
The principle of asceticism has never been steadily | 8 |
OF THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY | 11 |
The systems that have been formed concerning | 14 |
Acts transient and continued | 16 |
OF PRINCIPLES ADVERSE TO THAT | 17 |
Connexion between offences by falsehood and offences | 30 |
Antipathy let the actions it dictates be ever so right | 32 |
Those which regard a future life are not specifically | 36 |
PLEASURE AND PAINS THEIR KINDS | 42 |
or of possession | 43 |
Pleasures of a good name | 44 |
Pleasures of the memory | 45 |
Pains of privation | 46 |
No positive pains correspond to the pleasure of the sexual sense 47 n 22 Pains of awkwardness | 47 |
Pains of piety | 48 |
Pains of association | 49 |
Circumstances influencing sensibility what | 52 |
Antipathetic sensibility and biases | 58 |
Radical frame of mind | 67 |
OF HUMAN ACTIONS IN GENERAL | 74 |
1172 | 77 |
OF INTENTIONALITY | 84 |
OF MOTIVES | 96 |
Figurative and unfigurative senses of the word | 97 |
Motive in prospectmotive in esse | 98 |
Motives to the understanding how they may influence the will | 99 |
No motives either constantly good or constantly bad 9 Nothing can act of itself as a motive but the ideas of pleasure or pain | 100 |
Difficulties which stand in the way of an analysis of this sort | 101 |
Catalogue of motives corresponding to that of Pleasures and Pains 14 Physical desire corresponding to pleasures of sense in general | 103 |
Sexual desire corresponding to the pleasures of the sexual sense | 104 |
Pecuniary interest to the pleasures of wealth | 105 |
To the pleasures of power the love of power | 108 |
The motive belonging to the religious sanction | 109 |
Illwill c to the pleasures of antipathy | 111 |
Selfpreservation to the several kinds of pains | 112 |
To the pains of exertion the love of ease | 113 |
Motives can only be bad with reference to the most frequent complexion of their effects | 114 |
Under the above restrictions motives may be distinguished into good bad and indifferent or neutral | 115 |
It is only in individual instances that motives can be good or bad | 116 |
Yet do not in all cases | 117 |
Next to them come those of the love of reputation | 118 |
Next those of the desire of amity | 119 |
Tendency they have to improve | 121 |
Conflict among motives 43 Motives impelling and restraining what | 122 |
Practical use of the above disquisitions relative to motives | 123 |
ΧΙ OF HUMAN DISPOSITIONS IN GENERAL | 125 |
A mischievous disposition a meritorious disposition what | 126 |
different times | 127 |
Case 3 Tendency goodmotive goodwill | 128 |
Example II | 129 |
Case 6 Tendency badmotive honour | 130 |
Case 7 Tendency goodmotive piety | 131 |
Case 9 Tendency goodmotive malevolence | 133 |
Example | 134 |
Standing tutelary motives are Goodwill | 135 |
The love of reputation | 136 |
Occasional tutelary motives may be any whatsoever | 137 |
What a mans disposition is can only be matter of presumption 126 | 141 |
OF THE CONSEQUENCES | 143 |
applied to the preceding cases | 149 |
No alarm when no assignable person is the object | 151 |
How intentionality c may influence the mischief of an act 19 Secondary mischief influenced by the state of the agents mind | 152 |
Case 1 Involuntariness | 153 |
Case 6 Consequences completely intentional and free from missupposal | 154 |
But it may aggravate the mischievousness where they are mischievous | 155 |
so even when issuing from the motive of religion | 156 |
CASES UNMEET FOR PUNISHMENT | 158 |
Therefore ought not to be admitted | 159 |
OF THE PROPORTION BETWEEN | 165 |
The most effectual way of rendering a punishment exemplary is by means of analogy | 179 |
Exemplarity and frugality in what they differ and agree | 180 |
applied to offences originating in illwill | 181 |
Other punishments in which it is to be found | 182 |
Mischiefs resulting from the unpopularity of a punish mentdiscontent among the people and weakness in the law | 183 |
Property 11 Remissibility | 184 |
To obtain all these properties punishments must be mixed | 185 |
Connexion of this with the ensuing chapter | 186 |
DIVISION OF OFFENCES | 187 |
No act ought to be an offence but what is detrimental to the community | 188 |
Class 2 Semipublic offences | 189 |
Class 5 Multiform offences viz | 190 |
Divisions and subdivisions | 191 |
Connection of offences against religion with the fore | 201 |
Offences against trust condition and property | 208 |
Offences against trusttheir connexion with each | 214 |
Prodigality in trustees dismissed to Class 3 | 221 |
Genera of Class I | 222 |
Offences against reputation | 225 |
Offences against property | 226 |
Offences against person and property | 234 |
Relationstwo result from every two objects 235 | 235 |
Domestic relations which are purely of legal institution | 236 |
Offences touching the condition of a master | 239 |
Various modes of servitude | 241 |
Guardianship whatNecessity of the institution | 244 |
Duration to be given to it | 246 |
Offences touching the condition of a guardian | 247 |
Offences touching the condition of a ward | 250 |
Offences touching the filial condition | 252 |
Condition of a husband Powers duties and rights that may be annexed to it | 254 |
Offences touching the condition of a husband | 255 |
Uncontiguous domestic relations | 257 |
Civil conditions | 264 |
Advantages of the present method 56 General idea of the method here pursued | 270 |
Its advantagesIt is convenient for the apprehension and the memory | 272 |
It gives room for general propositions | 273 |
It is alike applicable to the laws of all nations | 274 |
Characters of class 1 | 275 |
Characters of class 2 | 276 |
Characters of class 3 | 277 |
Characters of class 4 | 278 |
Characters of class 5 | 279 |
OF THE LIMITS OF THE PENAL BRANCH OF JURISPRUDENCE | 281 |
Ethics in general what | 282 |
Art of education | 283 |
Probity and beneficence how they connect with prudence | 284 |
Every act which is a proper object of ethics is not of legislation | 285 |
Neither ought to apply where punishment is groundless | 286 |
How far where it would be unprofitable | 287 |
2 By enveloping the innocent | 288 |
Legislation how far necessary for the enforcement of the dictates of prudence | 289 |
Apt to go too far in this respect | 290 |
Particularly in matters of religion | 291 |
How far necessary for the enforcement of the dictates of probity | 292 |
Difference between private ethics and the art of legislation recapitulated | 293 |
Jurisprudence expositorycensorial | 294 |
internal and international | 296 |
Internal jurisprudence national and provincial local or particular | 297 |
Jurisprudence statutorycustomary | 298 |
Question concerning the distinction between the civil branch and the penal stated | 299 |
CONCLUDING NOTE | 301 |
Every law is either a command or a revocation of one | 302 |
But a punitory law involves the simply imperative one it belongs to | 303 |
The same mass of expository matter may serve in com mon for many laws | 304 |
consequences | 310 |
313 | |
321 | |
341 | |
Common terms and phrases
action appear applied B. I. tit benevolence body Bowring edition called cause chapter ciple circum circumstances common concerned conduct consequences Constitutional corresponds crime crimes and punishments dictates of utility disposition distinguished effects greatest happiness greatest happiness principle H. L. A. Hart human Hume idea individual influence instance intention interest J. S. Mill Jeremy Bentham kind legislation less London love of reputation man's matter means ment mischief Montesquieu motive nature object occasion offences operate Oxford pains of privation Panopticon particular party person philosophical pleasure or pain pleasures and pains political positive pains present principle of asceticism principle of utility private ethics produced psychological hedonism punishment question reference reform regard religion religious Representative Democracy respect right and wrong self-regarding sense sensibility sentiment sort stances styled supposed tendency termed theory thing tion trust University College London Utilitarianism Utilitas words