| Hardcover, 343 pages Published 1996 (originally 1789) Borrowed from the library Read June 2012 |
by Jeremy Bentham
There's a certain delight to be got from following the turnings of a highly intelligent mind at work, even if they take you through the twisted turnings on the way there. I got the same delight out of reading this book that I did reading Darwin's Origin. His explanation of utilitarianism is (to my amateur philosopher self, anyway) well-argued and compelling, as is his call for a science of government (not that that's worked out the way that he hoped). Of course, it gets boring in Part III when he just ends up classifying laws, but then I just turned to aggressive skim-reading and made it through to the end.
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