Secular utilitarianism
Subtitle: social science and the critique of religion in the thought of Jeremy Bentham
By: James E. Crimmins.
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1990
Place of publication: Oxford [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 348
Subjects: Bentham, Jeremy, 1748-1832 -- Religion.; Utilitarianism.; Religion and the social sciences -- History.; Christianity and the social sciences -- History.; Great Britain -- Religion -- 18th century.; Great Britain -- Religion -- 19th century.
Description: Jeremy Bentham was an ardent secularist convinced that society could be sustained without the support of religious institutions or beliefs. This book illustrates the nature, extent, and depth of Bentham's concern with religion, from his Oxford days of first doubts through the middle years of quiet unbelief to the zealous atheism and secularism of his later life. Crimmins provides an interpretation of Bentham's thought in which his religious views are shown to be integral: on the one hand, intimately associated with the metaphysical, epistemological, and psychological principles which gave shape to his system as a whole, and, on the other, central to the development of his entirely secular view of society.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [317]-329) and index.