The Rationale of Punishment (Classic Reprint) - Couverture souple

Bentham, Jeremy

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1330064909 ISBN 13 : 9781330064900

Editeur : Forgotten Books, 2018

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

This edition of utilitarian philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham’s The Rationale of Punishment is the first comprehensive version of this classic philosophical text since 1830. Editor James T. McHugh approaches this important work on penology from a new perspective. Through a careful examination and comparison of original manuscripts—plus the 1818 French edition by Étienne Dumont and the 1830 edition by Richard Smith—McHugh reveals that Dumont and Smith were more than editors and translators. In fact, they were actual contributors to the final product in subtle, yet significant, ways.

As McHugh notes, the two earlier editions augmented the original manuscripts to reflect a more idealized and, at the same time, more practically applicable understanding of utilitarian proportionality and justice in relation to penal law and policy. From this perspective, punishment should be proportional to the crime; it should alleviate the pain that the initial criminal act caused (or limit the potential for a repeat of the crime), but it should not be more painful than necessary, because maximizing pleasure for as many persons as possible (if not for absolutely everyone) is the ultimate responsibility and goal of the state.

A substantial editor’s introduction provides a new thesis regarding this interpretation and its importance, especially for understanding the relevance of utilitarian thought upon current debates regarding punishment. McHugh argues that The Rationale of Punishment is a model of applied philosophy that should be reexamined and adapted to the debates that continue regarding the desire to prevent crime, compensate its victims, avoid unattractive and potentially self-destructive tendencies of human vindictiveness, and promote the paramount vision of a truly good society. Additionally, this edition is placed within its broader scholarly context, drawing upon a considerable body of primary and secondary sources.

Présentation de l'éditeur :

But circumstances which prevented these new volumes from entering upon the same course of circulation as the preceding have sometimes cooled my zeal, and I should willingly have resigned the task I had imposed upon myself, if the author would have undertaken it himself. Unhappily, he is as little disposed so to do as ever, and if these works do not appear in the French dress which I have given them, it is most probable that they will remain shut up in his cabinet. They have lain there thirty years :the manu scripts from which I have extracted La Theorie des Peines, were written in 1775. Those which have supplied me with La Theorie des Recompenses, are a little later :they were not thrown aside as use less, but laid aside as rough hewn materials, which might at a future day be polished, and form part of a general system of legislation or as studies which the author had made for his own use. These manuscripts, though much more voluminous than the work I have presented to the public, are very incomplete. They offered to me often different essays upon the same subject, of which it was necessary to take the substance and unite them into one.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Forgotten Books
• Date d'édition: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1330064909
• ISBN 13: 9781330064900
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 465