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Deontology; Or, the Science of Morality, From the Mss. of J. Bentham Ed. by J. Bowring
Deontology Or the Science of Morality From the Mss of J Bentham Ed by J Bowring Author:Jeremy Bentham General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1834 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER I. GENERAL STATEMENT ALLIANCE BETWEEN INTEREST AND DUTY. He who in a deliberative assembly volunteers to bring any motion forward, confers on himself a distinction, in which his prominency cannot but be contrasted with the equality of the rest; -- so, he who in the republic of letters chooses to range himself among the few who write, becomes necessarily contradistinguished from the many who read, and both speaker and writer take upon themselves no inconsiderable responsibility. But, while in the case of a meeting for discussion, every impropriety of the speaker has the chance of immediate correction -- in the case of that fictitious and never assembled body which creates the tribunal of public opinion, no instant removal of error has place ; -- secured for the most part against contradiction, the public writer is liable to assume a confidence unwarranted by his position. He has a motive to avoid giving to his doctrines and precepts the support of adequate reasons, the production of which would interfere with his love of ease, and thedeveloperaent of which would demand an additional exercise of intellectual effort. The public legislator, with all his powers, is generally less despotic in his phraseology than the public writer -- that self-constituted legislator of the people. He makes laws without giving reasons, -- laws which generally convey only his sovereign will and pleasure. It is indeed a misfortune that men come to the discussion of important questions predetermined to decide them only in one way. They are pledged, as it were, to their own minds, that certain practices shall be wrong,...« less