Bentham

A speech for the defence in a Paris murder trial, a road-safety slogan, Hobbes' political theory; each appeals to reason of a kind, but it remains an oblique and rhetoricalldnd. Each relies on comparisons rather than on direct statements, and none can override or supersede the conclusions of ethical reasoning proper. Nevertheless, just as slogans may do more for road safety than the mere recital of accident statistics, or of the evidence given at coroners' inquests, so the arguments of a Hobbes or a Bentham may be of greater practical effect than the assertion of genuinely ethical or political statements, however true and relevant these may be.

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1749 Original Publisher: printed by J. Bentham, and sold there by W. Thurlbourn and T. Merrill, and by S. Austen and J. Whiston in London Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text.