VIRTUAL EVENT: Book Launch - Bentham and the Arts

About this Event

To mark the publication of Bentham and the Arts, a collection of essays edited by Professor Anthony Julius (UCL), Professor Malcolm Quinn (University of the Arts London), and Professor Philip Schofield (UCL), the Bentham Project, UCL Faculty of Laws, is delighted to host an online book launch featuring the volume’s editors and contributors.

Bentham and the Arts considers the sceptical challenge presented by Bentham’s hedonistic utilitarianism to the existence of the aesthetic, as represented in the oft-quoted statement that, ‘Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry. If the game of push-pin furnish more pleasure, it is more valuable than either.’ This statement is one part of a complex set of arguments on culture, taste, and utility that Bentham pursued over his lifetime, in which sensations of pleasure and pain were opposed to aesthetic sensibility. Leading scholars from a variety of disciplines reflect on the implications of Bentham’s radical utilitarian approach for our understanding of the history and contemporary nature of art, literature, and aesthetics more generally.

’Bentham and the Arts is a feast. Ranging from poetry and sexual nonconformity to the auto-icon and public sculpture, from Hume, Kant, and de Staël to Freud and Michel Onfray, an excellent crew of contributors brings Jeremy Bentham out from the shadow cast by John Stuart Mill with much new to say on taste and politics. Highly recommended for students and scholars alike, this fine interdisciplinary volume is available to all through open-access publishing.’ - Professor Stephen Engelmann, University of Illinois at Chicago

Bentham and the Arts will be published on 11 May by UCL Press, in paperback, hardback, and as a free PDF download. For more details, please visit the publisher’s website.

Programme

Chair: Professor Philip Schofield (UCL)

• Professor Anthony Julius (UCL) on Bentham and Mill’s views on literary censorship
• Professor Stella Sandford (Kingston) on Bentham and sexual psychology
• Professor Emmanuelle de Champs (Cergy Paris) on Bentham and Enlightenment debates on taste
• Dr Tim Milnes (Edinburgh) on Bentham and the Romantics on truth and meaning
• Professor Malcolm Quinn (UAL) on Bentham’s reputed philistinism
• Dr Carolyn Shapiro (Falmouth) on Bentham, materialism, and the auto-icon

Joining Instructions

The event will take place using Microsoft Teams, which can be accessed via a laptop or desktop computer, either as a web app, or downloaded from https://products.office.com/en-gb/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software. Microsoft Teams can also be downloaded as an app for your Android or Apple smartphone. Please do ensure that you register an account with Microsoft Teams before the event.

We would be grateful if you could register your attendance using Eventbrite, so that we can add you to the ‘Team’ for the event. In your confirmation email you will receive a link to the event - simply click on this on the day to join the meeting. Further joining instructions will be sent in an email prior to the event.

Queries

If you have any other queries about the event (particularly technical queries), please do contact Dr Tim Causer (t dot causer at ucl dot ac dot uk). The event will be recorded and the video subsequently made available.

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