Philosophy, Obligation and the Law : Benthams Ontology of Normativity

Description

"This book presents a comprehensive investigation of the notion of obligation in Benthams thought. For Bentham, obligation is a fictitious namely linguistic entity, whose import and truth lie in empirical perceptions of pain and pleasure, real entities.This work explores Benthams fictionalism, and aims to identify the general features that ethical fictitious entities (including obligation) share with other kinds of fictitious entities. The book is divided into two parts: the first examines the ontological and epistemological foundations of Benthams distinction between real and fictitious entities; the second part addresses the normative and motivational aspects of moral and legal notions.This book reveals the centrality of the following issues to Benthams legal reform: logic, theory of language, physics, metaphysics, metaethics, axiology, the structure of practical reasoning and action with reference to the law."--Provided by publisher.  Read more...