Principles of Morals and

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An Introduction
to the
 Principles of Morals and
Legislation
Jeremy Bentham
1781
Batoche Books
Kitchener
2000

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Contents
Preface ............................................................................................... 5
I: Of The Principle of Utility ............................................................ 14
II: Of Principles Adverse to that of Utility ....................................... 19
III: Of the Four Sanctions or Sources of Pain and Pleasure ............ 27
IV: Value of a Lot of Pleasure or Pain, How to be Measured .......... 31
V: Pleasures and Pains, Their Kinds ................................................ 35
VI: Of Circumstances Influencing Sensibility .................................. 42
VII: Of Human Actions in General .................................................. 61
VIII: Of Intentionality ...................................................................... 69
IX: Of Consciousness ...................................................................... 74
X: Of Motives .................................................................................. 80
XI: Human Dispositions in General ............................................... 105
XII: Of the Consequences of a Mischievous Act ........................... 121
XIII: Cases Unmeet for Punishment ............................................... 134
XIV: Of the Proportion between Punishments and Offences .......... 140
XV: Of the Properties to be Given to a Lot of Punishment ............ 147
XVI: Division of Offenses.............................................................. 158
XVII: Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence ............ 224
Notes .............................................................................................. 239

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Preface
The following sheets were, as the note on the opposite page expresses,
printed so long ago as the year 1780. The design, in pursuance of which
they were written, was not so extensive as that announced by the present
title. They had at that time no other destination than that of serving as an
introduction to a plan of a penal code in terminus, designed to follow
them, in the same volume.
The body of the work had received its completion according to the
then present extent of the author’s views, when, in the investigation of
some flaws he had discovered, he found himself unexpectedly entangled
in an unsuspected corner of the metaphysical maze. A suspension, at
first not apprehended to be more than a temporary one, necessarily en-
sued: suspension brought on coolness, and coolness, aided by other con-
current causes, ripened into disgust.
Imperfections pervading the whole mass had already been pointed
out by the sincerity of severe and discerning friends; and conscience had
certified the justness of their censure. The inordinate length of some of
the chapters, the apparent inutility of others, and the dry and metaphysi-
cal turn of the whole, suggested an apprehension, that, if published in its
present form, the work would contend under great disadvantages for
any chance, it might on other accounts possess, of being read, and con-
sequently of being of use.
But, though in this manner the idea of completing the present work
slid insensibly aside, that was not by any means the case with the con-
siderations which had led him to engage in it. Every opening, which
promised to afford the lights he stood in need of, was still pursued: as
occasion arose the several departments connected with that in which he

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6/Jeremy Bentham
had at first engaged, were successively explored; insomuch that, in one
branch or other of the pursuit, his researches have nearly embraced the
whole field of legislation.
Several causes have conspired at present to bring to light, under
this new title, a work which under its original one had been impercepti-
bly, but as it had seemed irrevocably, doomed to oblivion. In the course
of eight years, materials for various works, corresponding to the differ-
ent branches of the subject of legislation, had been produced, and some
nearly reduced to shape: and, in every one of those works, the principles
exhibited in the present publication had been found so necessary, that,
either to transcribe them piece-meal, or to exhibit them somewhere where
they could be referred to in the lump, was found unavoidable. The former
course would have occasioned repetitions too bulky to be employed with-
out necessity in the execution of a plan unavoidably so voluminous: the
latter was therefore indisputably the preferable one.
To publish the materials in the form in which they were already
printed, or to work them up into a new one, was therefore the only
alternative: the latter had all along been his wish, and, had time and the
requisite degree of alacrity been at command, it would as certainly have
been realised. Cogent considerations, however, concur, with the irksome-
ness of the task, in placing the accomplishment of it at present at an
unfathomable distance.
Another consideration is, that the suppression of the present work,
had it been ever so decidedly wished, is no longer altogether in his power.
In the course of so long an interval, various incidents have introduced
copies into various hands, from some of which they have been trans-
ferred by deaths and other accidents, into others that are unknown to
him. Detached, but considerable extracts, have even been published,
without any dishonourable views (for the name of the author was very
honestly subjoined to them), but without his privity, and in publications
undertaken without his knowledge.
It may perhaps be necessary to add, to complete his excuse for of-
fering to the public a work pervaded by blemishes, which have not es-
caped even the author’s partial eye, that the censure, so justly bestowed
upon the form, did not extend itself to the matter.
In sending it thus abroad into the world with all its imperfections
upon its head, he thinks it may be of assistance to the few readers he can
expect, to receive a short intimation of the chief particulars, in respect
of which it fails of corresponding with his maturer views. It will thence

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