of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Quinn, Michael, 1961- author.
Title: Jeremy Bentham / Michael Quinn.
Description: Medford, MA : Polity Press, 2022. | Series: Classic thinkers | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “An erudite introduction to the ideas of the father of utilitarianism”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021015852 (print) | LCCN 2021015853 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509521906 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509521913 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509521920 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781509521944 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Bentham, Jeremy, 1748-1832 | Utilitarianism.
Classification: LCC B1574.B34 Q56 2022 (print) | LCC B1574.B34 (ebook) | DDC 192--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015852
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015853
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Dedication
Für Angela, eine wahre Freundin, die immer daran geglaubt hat.
Acknowledgments
This book is informed in part by fifteen years of teaching students at UCL about Bentham’s thought. I am grateful to them for asking questions to which I had no answers, and contributing in many ways to my understanding of that thought (though I still lack the answers to some of the questions). Another important source of learning has been the parallel editing of parts of Bentham’s corpus for the ongoing critical edition of his writings, The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham. I need to say a heartfelt thanks to Fred Rosen for giving me the opportunity to begin working on Bentham in 1993, and to Philip Schofield for renewing the opportunity in 2004.
Over the years, many Bentham scholars have been generous with their time and energy in discussion, and in reading and commenting on arguments, and I can only hope that I have been equally obliging. Singling out individuals is always invidious, but I would like to express particular thanks to Jean-Pierre Cléro, Doug Long, Stephen Engelmann, David Lieberman and Peter Niesen. Xiaobo Zhai deserves special thanks for asking too many questions to which I had no convincing answers, and obliging me to think anew. The public policy focus of the book has been present since the beginning, but developed considerably in exhaustive discussions with Malik Bozzo-Rey and Angela Marciniak in 2019. I am very grateful to both, and I hope they are not too disappointed with the result.
This book was written while holding a research fellowship awarded by the DFG Collaborative Research Centre SFB/TRR 138 ‘Dynamics of Security. Types of Securitization from a Historical Perspective’ at Philipps-University Marburg and Justus-Liebig University Giessen. I am deeply grateful to Professor Horst Carl and the Board of SFB/TRR 138 for the invitation, and to the staff of the Research Project for their unstinting efforts to make this Englishman feel welcome in Germany. The fact that I arrived in tandem with COVID-19 has meant that I have seen less of the country than I would have liked, but I have been deeply touched by the care for my welfare demonstrated by Professor Carl and the denizens of the ninth floor of the History tower, and in particular Mark Chaouali, Marina Kraft, Sarah Kramer and Eva-Maria Nitz (especially for making the effort to get me to speak German: es ist immer noch schlecht, aber ich werde mich mehr bemühen). I stand deeply in their debt.
I am grateful to Tim Causer and Benjamin Bourcier, who gave helpful feedback on drafts of chapters, and to Chris Riley, who read the whole text and assisted with troublesome references. My greatest debt is to Angela Marciniak, who has been a never-failing source of support, encouragement and constructive challenge, and who commented on the chapters as they were drafted, while the missteps that remain are mine alone. I cannot begin to return adequate recompense for her friendship and support, but I can say that without it this book would not have seen the light of day.
Parts of Chapters 3 and 4 originally appeared in a special issue of History of European Ideas, Indirect Legislation: Jeremy Bentham’s Regulatory Revolution (Bozzo-Rey, Brunon-Ernst and Quinn, 2017) (https://tandfonline.com). I am grateful to Taylor and Francis for permission to reproduce revised versions here.
I need to say thank you to three referees who reviewed the draft carefully and who all improved it, and finally to record my appreciation for the tact, patience and skill of George Owers and Julia Davies at Polity: working with whom has been a pleasure.
Introduction
To have compleated the junction between interest and duty in every line of human conduct would be neither more nor less than to have brought the science and art of government to perfection – to have established a perfect system of legislation. (2010a: 353)
The Bentham presented in this book is a Bentham who believed that the principle of utility was applicable in all contexts, but whose central focus was on the delivery of good outcomes by public institutions. In other words he was, above all, with Engelmann, a ‘theorist of the art and science of government’ (2017: 71), both in the sense that government was an engineer of the context in which its subjects made choices, and in the sense that the context in which government and its functionaries made choices was in large measure created by the choices of those same subjects. In the current crisis of political liberalism, this approach remains relevant, not to say urgent, across political communities (see Ch. 9: 171–4).
Of course, Bentham does not provide ready-made solutions to the problems that beset modern society, but he does provide a method of framing them that is as relevant now as when first developed. His chosen instrument was law, understood in a very broad sense, and relying on public knowledge and general endorsement (or at least the absence of general resistance) for its effectiveness. His investigations took him in many directions, often sparked by the political salience of particular problems, and his ideas on central issues, especially representative democracy, changed radically. That said, his central frame, based on the combination of two elements, never varied. Those elements were first, the explanation of events and the recommendation of policies on the basis of a belief in the motivational power of self-preference; and second, the evaluation of actions, laws and policies on the basis of their impact on the happiness of those affected by them. If happiness remains valuable, the study of Bentham has much to offer.
It is true to say that once launched on the study of a topic, Bentham followed
