Bentham and the pleasures of cruelty
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Koh, T.Y. [1]
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[1] Yale-NUS College
Yale-NUS College
Singapur
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- Localización: History of political thought, ISSN 0143-781X, Vol. 40, Nº 4, 2019, págs. 699-716
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
This paper argues that Jeremy Bentham's writings on sex can be read as a condemnation of cruelty. Paying attention to cruelty highlights three features of his political thought: first, that the deprivation of pleasure was cruelty and, conversely, his defence of irregular sexual pleasures was a defence of the liberty of pleasure; second, that he condemned the pleasures of cruelty not as pleasures, but as the pleasures of tyranny; and third, that he offered a utilitarian defence of the liberty of pleasure -- the principle of utility was the only political principle which could consistently avoid cruelty and result in beneficence.
