Bentham’s An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation

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In the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), Bentham strove ‘to cut a new road through the wilds of jurisprudence’. Laws should be socially useful and not merely reflect the status quo; and, that while he believed that human beings inevitably pursue pleasure and avoid pain, Bentham thought it to be a ‘sacred truth’ that ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation’.