Bentham and the Arts

Product Description

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.


About the Author

Philip Schofield is director of the Bentham Project, UCL Faculty of Laws, and general editor of the new authoritative edition of The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham. He is the author of Bentham: A Guide for the Perplexed.