Bentham, Jeremy 1748-1832

An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation by Jeremy Bentham ( Book )
131 editions published between 1789 and 2012 in English and German and held by 4,826 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
An electronic version of Bentham's classic work of utilitarian philosophy. The HTML text is rendered from the 1907 Oxford University Press edition, which in turn was a reprint of the 1823 edition. The e-text is part of a site maintained by Dan Bonevac and Paul Lyon called 'Classical Utilitarianism'

The theory of legislation by Jeremy Bentham ( )
126 editions published between 1840 and 2011 in 3 languages and held by 3,883 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
"Whatever may be thought of the Principle of Utility, when considered as the foundation of morals, no one now-a-days will undertake to deny that it is the only safe rule of legislation. To establish and illustrate this proposition, and to show how it ought to be, and might be carried into practice, was the aim and end of Bentham's life and writings. Bacon derives his fame from the fact that he was the first who fully appreciated and formally laid down the proposition, now familiar to everybody, that experiment and observation are the only solid bases of the physical sciences. In the moral sciences, and especially in legislation, the principle of utility is the only certain guide; and, in the estimation of an impartial posterity, Bentham will rank with Bacon, as an original genius of the first order. During a long life, devoted solely and assiduously to the study of jurisprudence, besides his occasional publications, he produced an immense mass of manuscripts, containing a fund of most valuable ideas, but unshaped, unarranged, and in a state quite unfit for publication. Fortunately for the cause of science, these materials were not left to perish; an interpreter, a compiler, a spokesman was found, every way worthy of the task he assumed. Dumont, a citizen of Geneva, whom political troubles had driven from his own country, after a residence of some years at St. Petersburg, where he gained a high reputation as a preacher of the Reformed Church, came to London under the patronage of the Lansdowne family, and there made Bentham's acquaintance. He became his friend and disciple, was permitted to examine and to study his manuscript treatises; and, having discovered the value of this hidden treasure, he solicited the task of arranging, condensing, filling out, compiling, and translating into the French language. As soon as Bentham had discovered the great divisions, the great classifications of laws, he embraced legislation as a whole, and formed the vast project of treating it in all its parts. He considered it not as composed of detached works, but as forming a single work. He had before his eyes the general chart of the science, and after that model he framed particular charts of all its departments. Hence it follows that the most striking peculiarity of his writings is their perfect correspondence. Among Dumont's first publications from the manuscripts of Bentham, was the treatise of which these volumes contain a translation. He afterwards brought out several other works compiled in the same way, and from the same sources; and it is only in these compilations that we find anything like a clear and complete development of the ideas of Bentham, or a full exposition of his system of legislation. Public attention in America is every day more and more attracted to the subject of Legal Reform; and the translator flatters himself that he will have performed a useful and acceptable service, in restoring to its native English tongue the following treatise. It includes a vast field, never before surveyed upon any regular plan, and least of all according to such principles as Bentham has laid down. In the application of those principles he has, doubtless, made some mistakes; for mistakes are of necessity incident to a first attempt. But he has himself furnished us with the means of detecting those mistakes and of correcting them. He asks us to receive nothing on his mere authority. He subjects everything to the test of General Utility." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

A fragment on government and An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation by Jeremy Bentham ( Book )
113 editions published between 1776 and 2008 in English and Undetermined and held by 2,946 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Defence of usury shewing the impolicy of the present legal restraints on the terms of pecuniary bargains in a series of letters to a friend : to which is added a letter to Adam Smith ... on the discouragements opposed by the above restraints to the progress of inventive industry by Jeremy Bentham ( )
145 editions published between 1787 and 2007 in English and French and held by 2,336 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Traités de législation civile et pénale by Jeremy Bentham ( )
62 editions published between 1802 and 2010 in 3 languages and held by 1,279 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Legislator of the world writings on codification, law, and education by Jeremy Bentham ( )
8 editions published in 1998 in English and held by 1,262 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Jeremy Bentham's economic writings by Jeremy Bentham ( Book )
28 editions published between 1952 and 2010 in English and Undetermined and held by 1,189 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
Reprinting three classic volumes on Jeremy Bentham's economic writings, the set contains historical introductions and collections of passages from Bentham's non-economic writings

The works of Jeremy Bentham by Jeremy Bentham ( Book )
38 editions published between 1838 and 2007 in English and held by 1,137 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Plan of parliamentary reform in the form of a catechism with reasons for each article : with an introduction, shewing the necessity of radical, and the inadequacy of moderate, reform by Jeremy Bentham ( )
26 editions published between 1817 and 2007 in English and held by 1,046 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Bentham's Theory of fictions by Jeremy Bentham ( Book )
26 editions published between 1932 and 2001 in 3 languages and held by 1,025 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company