This book is the first comprehensive account of the political thought of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the philosopher and reformer, and draws on an extensive range of unpublished manuscripts and original printed texts, and on the new, authoritative edition of The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham. A further distinctive feature lies in its thorough investigation of the intimate relationship between Bentham’s political thought on the one hand, and his legal and religious thought on the other. The book begins with a lucid account of Bentham’s theory of logic and language, which is shown to underpi ... More

This book is the first comprehensive account of the political thought of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the philosopher and reformer, and draws on an extensive range of unpublished manuscripts and original printed texts, and on the new, authoritative edition of The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham. A further distinctive feature lies in its thorough investigation of the intimate relationship between Bentham’s political thought on the one hand, and his legal and religious thought on the other. The book begins with a lucid account of Bentham’s theory of logic and language, which is shown to underpin his utilitarianism, and provide the rationale for his attack on the related doctrines of natural law and natural rights. It then investigates the factors which led Bentham to produce the first major utilitarian defence of democracy. In contrast to previous scholarship, which claims that Bentham’s ‘conversion’ or ‘transition’ to political radicalism took place either at the time of the French Revolution or subsequent to his meeting with James Mill in 1808 or 1809, this book argues that the process was longer and more complex, beginning around 1804 when the notion of sinister interest emerged in Bentham’s thought. Bentham came to appreciate that rulers, rather than being motivated by a desire to promote the greatest happiness of the community as a whole, wished to promote their own selfish or sinister interest. The solution lay in the establishment of representative democracy, where publicity could make the actions of officials transparent, and thus render rulers genuinely accountable to the people.