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
INTRODUCTION by F Rosen | xxxi |
FURTHER READING | lxxi |
BENTHAMS PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY | lxxix |
of the dictates of beneficence 292 | xcvi |
PREFACE | 1 |
It depends upon what the act appears to be to him 126 | 6 |
2 Between the intentions of the same person at different times 127 | 7 |
When directly intentional it may be exclusively so | 8 |
Case 7 Tendency goodmotive piety | 131 |
Case 9 Tendency goodmotive malevolence | 133 |
Example | 134 |
Standing tutelary motives are Goodwill | 135 |
The desire of amity | 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 |
OF THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY | 11 |
OF PRINCIPLES ADVERSE TO THAT | 17 |
Rule 7 Want of certainty must be made up | 18 |
Difference between private ethics and the art | 20 |
This is rather the negation of all principle than | 25 |
Connexion between offences by falsehood and offences | 30 |
But errs in some instances on the side of lenity | 31 |
In what ways the law is concerned with the above pains | 33 |
OF PAIN AND PLEASURE | 34 |
Use of the foregoing process | 40 |
Pleasures of wealth which are either of acquisition 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 |
OF CIRCUMSTANCES INFLUENCING SENSIBILITY | 51 |
Circumstances influencing sensibility what | 52 |
Health | 53 |
Hardiness | 54 |
Bodily imperfection | 55 |
Firmness of mind | 56 |
Moral sensibility | 57 |
Sympathetic biases | 58 |
Connexions in the way of sympathy | 60 |
Connexions in the way of antipathy | 61 |
Radical frame of body | 62 |
Yet the result of them is not separately discernible | 63 |
Secondary influencing circumstances | 64 |
Age | 65 |
Education | 66 |
Climate | 67 |
Religious profession | 68 |
Use of the preceding observations | 69 |
To what exciting causes there is most occasion to apply them | 70 |
Analytical view of the circumstances influencing sensibility | 72 |
OF HUMAN ACTIONS IN GENERAL | 74 |
The intention depends as well upon the understanding as the will | 75 |
Negative acts may be so relatively or absolutely | 76 |
A transitive act its commencement termination and intermediate progress | 77 |
Acts transient and continued | 78 |
Caution respecting the ambiguity of language | 79 |
Circumstances material and immaterial | 80 |
It is not every event that has circumstances related to it in all those ways | 81 |
Use of this chapter | 82 |
OF INTENTIONALITY | 84 |
but not without regarding the first stage | 85 |
A consequence when intentional may be directly so or obliquely | 86 |
When disjunctively it may be with or without preference | 87 |
Intentionality of the act with respect to its different stages how far material | 88 |
OF CONSCIOUSNESS | 90 |
The supposed circumstance might have been material in the way either of prevention or of compensation | 91 |
In what case consciousness extends the intentionality from the act to the consequences | 92 |
It is better when the intention is meant to be spoken of as being good or bad not to say the motive | 93 |
Intention in what cases it may be innocent | 94 |
Use of this and the preceding chapter | 95 |
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 |
OF HUMAN DISPOSITIONS IN GENERAL | 125 |
A mischievous disposition a meritorious disposition what | 126 |
2 from the nature of the motive | 127 |
Case 3 Tendency goodmotive goodwill | 128 |
Example II | 129 |
Case 6 Tendency badmotive honour | 130 |
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 |
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 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 of Class 2 1 Offences through calamity | 194 |
Connection of offences against religion with the fore | 201 |
Offences against trust condition and property | 208 |
Offences against trust their 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 reputation | 232 |
Offences against person and property | 234 |
Domestic relations which are purely of legal institution | 236 |
Offences touching the condition of a master | 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 | 249 |
Offences touching the condition of a parent | 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 |
Offences touching the condition of a wife | 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 |
legislation recapitulated | 293 |
Expository jurisprudence authoritative unauthoritative | 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 |
| 313 | |
| 341 | |
Common terms and phrases
action appear applied B. I. tit benevolence biases Bowring edition called chapter ciple circum circumstances common commonly concern connexion consequences corresponds crimes and punishments degree disposition distinguished effects example exciting cause good-will greatest happiness principle H. L. A. Hart happen happiness human Hume idea individual influence instance intention interest IPML J. S. Mill Jeremy Bentham John Bowring kind legislator less London love of reputation man's matter means ment mind Montesquieu moral sanction nature objects occasion offence operate pain and pleasure pains of privation Panopticon particular party pecuniary penal perhaps person pleasure or pain pleasures and pains political positive pains present principle of utility produced psychological hedonism punishment quantity question reference regard religion religious Representative Democracy respect self-regarding sort of motive stances strength styled supposed tendency termed thing tion tive tutelary motives University College London Utilitarianism word