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The English Utilitarians By: Leslie Stephen (1832-1904) |
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By LESLIE STEPHEN
[Illustration]
LONDON DUCKWORTH and CO. 3 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. 1900
PREFACE
This book is a sequel to my History of English Thought in the
Eighteenth Century . The title which I then ventured to use was more
comprehensive than the work itself deserved: I felt my inability to
write a continuation which should at all correspond to a similar title
for the nineteenth century. I thought, however, that by writing an
account of the compact and energetic school of English Utilitarians I
could throw some light both upon them and their contemporaries. I had
the advantage for this purpose of having been myself a disciple of the
school during its last period. Many accidents have delayed my completion
of the task; and delayed also its publication after it was written. Two
books have been published since that time, which partly cover the same
ground; and I must be content with referring my readers to them for
further information. They are The English Radicals , by Mr. C. B.
Roylance Kent; and English Political Philosophy from Hobbes to Maine ,
by Professor Graham.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY 1
CHAPTER I POLITICAL CONDITIONS I. The British Constitution 12 II. The Ruling Class 18 III. Legislation and Administration 22 IV. The Army and Navy 30 V. The Church 35 VI. The Universities 43 VII. Theory 51
CHAPTER II THE INDUSTRIAL SPIRIT I. The Manufacturers 57 II. The Agriculturists 69
CHAPTER III SOCIAL PROBLEMS I. Pauperism 87 II. The Police 99 III. Education 108 IV. The Slave Trade 113 V. The French Revolution 121 VI. Individualism 130
CHAPTER IV PHILOSOPHY I. John Horne Tooke 137 II. Dugald Stewart 142
CHAPTER V BENTHAM'S LIFE I. Early Life 169 II. First Writings 175 III. The Panopticon 193 IV. Utilitarian Propaganda 206 V. Codification 222
CHAPTER VI BENTHAM'S DOCTRINE I. First Principles 235 II. Springs of Action 249 III. The Sanctions 255 IV. Criminal Law 263 V. English Law 271 VI. Radicalism 282 VII. Individualism 307
NOTE ON BENTHAM'S WRITINGS 319
INTRODUCTORY
The English Utilitarians of whom I am about to give some account were a
group of men who for three generations had a conspicuous influence upon
English thought and political action. Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and
John Stuart Mill were successively their leaders; and I shall speak of
each in turn. It may be well to premise a brief indication of the method
which I have adopted. I have devoted a much greater proportion of my
work to biography and to consideration of political and social
conditions than would be appropriate to the history of a philosophy. The
reasons for such a course are very obvious in this case, inasmuch as the
Utilitarian doctrines were worked out with a constant reference to
practical applications. I think, indeed, that such a reference is often
equally present, though not equally conspicuous, in other philosophical
schools. But in any case I wish to show how I conceive the relation of
my scheme to the scheme more generally adopted by historians of abstract
speculation. I am primarily concerned with the history of a school or sect, not with
the history of the arguments by which it justifies itself in the court
of pure reason. I must therefore consider the creed as it was actually
embodied in the dominant beliefs of the adherents of the school, not as
it was expounded in lecture rooms or treatises on first principles... Continue reading book >>
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