The French Revolution and the Creation of Benthamism

摘要

Jeremy Bentham wrote prolificaily, but was less effective at getting his work into print. The man who did this for him in the early years of the nineteenth century - who edited, rewrote, rearranged, translated and published Bentham's manuscripts - was Etienne Dumont, a Genevan pastor who became Bentham's chief disciple and promoter. So it was that much of Bentham's work on moral philosophy and legislative reform, the writings that earned him his international reputation, appeared first in French. Many subsequent English language editions, right up to the twentieth century, were retranslations from Dumont.