000			03167nam a22002171i 4500
005			20220507121629.0
008			140929s2000 enk ob 001 0 eng d
020			_a9781472562203
040			_aMAIN
082	0	0	_a342/.001
100	1		_aBen-Dor, Oren,
245	1	0	_aConstitutional limits and the public sphere : _ba critical study of Bentham's contitutionalism _h[electronic resource] / _cby Oren Ben-Dor.
300			_a1 online resource (x, 336 pages)
500			_aBloomsbury Pub Ebook
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (pages [313]-325) and index.
520			_a"The place of utility as a critical theory of human existence has been largely discredited and its potential undermined in the course of modern debates in ethical, political and legal theory. The central intuition that guides the argument of this book is that both the technical and reductionist methodology associated with utilitarianism do not do justice to the theory which identifies the maximisation of pleasure as the most fundamental self-interest of man. Enlarging upon this intuition, the book is mainly concerned with critical constitutionalism. Based on a close reading of Bentham's unpublished and recently published texts, the argument in the first part shows that a critical analysis of constitutionally limited government formed a central theme of Bentham's utilitarian enterprise. The theme of the author's reconstruction is that, for Bentham, constitutional limits signified socially dynamic relationships within the public sphere and between this sphere and a centralised coercive authority. Because this relationship is socially dynamic, the ever-changing communal-based conception of harm constantly transforms the relationship between law and the community which it governs. This feature reappears in many layers of Bentham's thought, such as his theory of sovereignty, the duty to obey the law, and the motivational basis for forming and transforming a conception of harm within the public sphere. Even the most revisionist of Bentham scholars fail to capture this central unifying theme in Bentham's writings. The second part of the book further develops this reconstruction. It argues that an underdeveloped insight of critical importance characterised Bentham's utilitarianism. This insight helps to elucidate the transient and dynamic connection of ethics to politics. In critically reviewing five contemporary accounts of this connection, utility is shown to have closer affinities with communitarianism. However as a critical theory, utility has more in common with the Habermasian notion of communication and inter-subjectivity than with Humean conventionalism. The utilitarian critic is in a position to transcend not only the simple hedonism with which utilitarianism has always been associated, but also the historically-ridden perspectives which potentially dogmatise the range of human possibilities under a received conception of harm."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
650		0	_aConstitutional law
650		0	_aUtilitarianism.
856	4	0	_uhttps://doi.org/10.5040/9781472562203?locatt=label:secondary_bloomsburyCollections
942			_cEBK
999			_c17417 _d17417