Jeremy Bentham'ın Etkisi ve Yararcılığın Çağdaş Arap Düşüncesine Giriş

Abstract

This article aims to study Jeremy Bentham’s influence and the introduction of utilitarianism to modern Arabic thought, while also providing insight on his circle of friends, students and followers, including: James Mill, J.S. Mill, Etienne Dumont and John Bowring, by examining Bentham’s life, works and philosophy.  Recognized as one of the most important modern ethical philosophers, Bentham founded ‘utilitarianism,’ which eventually had great influence in England, France, Russia, U.S.A, etc. The  article  also  examines  Bentham’s  books  on  the  Traités  de  Législation  Civile  et Pénale, which gained him world wide recognition and was published in the corpus of his work compiled by his pupil E. Dumont in 1802.  This work was translated into Arabic as Kitâb Usûl al Şarâ’i’ by the famous Egyptian judge Ahmad Fathi Zaghlul, and published in 1891. After evaluating A. F. Zaghlul’s translation, it is shown that the systematic introduction of utilitarianism into modern Arabic thought was due to this translation, and later on such liberal politicians and thinkers as Sa’d Zaghlul and Ahmad Lutfi al Sayyed accepted and defended the utilitarian theory.