Rights, Representation, and Reform: Nonsense upon Stilts and Other Writings on the French Revolution (The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham) - Hardcover

Bentham, Jeremy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019924863X ISBN 13: 9780199248636

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2002

Synopsis

The French Revolution provided Bentham with what appeared to him to be an exciting opportunity to influence the reconstruction of the French state. Drawing on his knowledge of English political and constitutional practice, as well as the theoretical resources he had developed in his own work, he suggested imaginative and innovative measures to achieve the peaceful and constitutional reform in France. In discussing the nature of representation he produced the earliest utilitarian justification of political equality and representative democracy, even recommending women's suffrage. Moreover, he provided a major critique of the dominant constitutional theory of the division of power, including both the doctrine of the balance of powers and that of the separation of powers. Turning his attention to Britain, for a time he advocated measures of parlimentary reform, but becoming disenchanted with the course of the Revolution he produced the celebrated 'Nonsense upon Stilts' (hitherto known as 'Anarchical Fallacies'), the most devastating attack on the theory of natural rights ever written, in which he argued that natural rights provided an unsuitable basis for stable legal and political arrangements. All the essays published in this volume, with the exception of Emancipate your Colonies!, an important early critique of colony-holding, are based on the original manuscript sources, many of which have not been previously published in any form.

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Review

This edition is to be welcomed for making these documents from the Bentham Papers easily available, in many cases for the first time. They will be of great service not only to Bentham scholars, but also to students of the French Revolution debate and political thought on both sides of the Channel. As ever, the editors have been meticulous in reconstructing these works from Bentham's sometimes less than coherent folios and once again the Bentham Project has fully justified the time, effort and money spent on it. (English Historical Review)

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 019924863X
• ISBN 13: 9780199248636
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 556
• Editor: Schofield Philip, Pease-Watkin Catherine, Blamires Cyprian