ABOUT THIS BOOK

Bentham and the Arts considers the skeptical challenge presented by Bentham’s hedonistic utilitarianism to the existence of the aesthetic, as represented in the oft-quoted statement that, ‘Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry. If the game of push-pin furnish more pleasure, it is more valuable than either.’ Ranging from poetry and sexual nonconformity to the auto-icon and public sculpture, from Hume, Kant, and de Staël to Freud and Michel Onfray, an excellent crew of contributors brings Jeremy Bentham out from the shadow cast by John Stuart Mill with much new to say on taste and politics.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Anthony Julius is Professor of Law and the Arts, UCL, and Deputy Chairman of law firm Mishcon de Reya. Malcolm Quinn is Professor of Cultural and Political History and Associate Dean of Research for Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon, University of the Arts London. Philip Schofield is Director of the Bentham Project, Faculty of Laws, UCL.

REVIEWS

Bentham and the Arts is a feast. Ranging from poetry and sexual nonconformity to the auto-icon and public sculpture, from Hume, Kant, and de Staël to Freud and Michel Onfray, an excellent crew of contributors brings Jeremy Bentham out from the shadow cast

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of contributors List of figures Acknowledgements Introduction Philip Schofield Part I. Philosophy and Sexuality 1. The Epicurean Universe of Jeremy Bentham: Taste, Beauty, and Reality Philip Schofield 2. Not Kant, but Bentham: On Taste Frances Ferguson 3. ‘Envy Accompanied with Antipathy’: Bentham on the Psychology of Sexual Ressentiment Stella Sandford Part II. Intellectual History and Literature 4. Literature, Morals, and Utility: Bentham, Dumont, and de Staël Emmanuelle de Champs 5. Jeremy Bentham’s Imagination and the Ethics of Prose Style: Paraphrase, Substitution, Translation Jan-Melissa Schramm 6. ‘Is It True? … What is the Meaning of it?’: Bentham, Romanticism, and the Fictions of Reason Tim Milnes 7. More Bentham, Less Mill Anthony Julius Part III. Aesthetics, Taste, and Art 8. Enlightenment Unrefined: Bentham’s Realism and the Analysis of Beauty Malcolm Quinn 9. Jeremy Bentham’s Principle of Utility and Taste: an Alternative Approach to Aesthetics in Two Stages Benjamin Bourcier 10. From Pain to Pleasure: Panopticon Dreams and Pentagon Petal Fran Cottell and Marianne Mueller 11. Bentham’s Image: the Corpo-Reality Check Carolyn Shapiro Index