14 September 2012

Review: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation by Jeremy Bentham

Hardcover, 343 pages
Published 1996 (originally 1789)
Borrowed from the library

Read June 2012
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
by Jeremy Bentham

There's a certain delight to be got from following the turnings of a highly intelligent mind at work, even if they take you through the twisted turnings on the way there. I got the same delight out of reading this book that I did reading Darwin's Origin. His explanation of utilitarianism is (to my amateur philosopher self, anyway) well-argued and compelling, as is his call for a science of government (not that that's worked out the way that he hoped). Of course, it gets boring in Part III when he just ends up classifying laws, but then I just turned to aggressive skim-reading and made it through to the end.

No comments:

Post a Comment