Beccaria: 'On Crimes and Punishments' and Other Writings

An edition of Beccaria's writings which reinterprets his political philosophy.

Cesare Beccaria (Author), Richard Bellamy (Edited by), Richard Davies (Translated by)

9780521479820, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 April 1995

236 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.3 x 13.7 x 1.5 cm, 0.318 kg

This edition of Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishments and other writings presents an interpretation of his thought. Drawing on Italian scholarship, Richard Bellamy shows how Beccaria wove together the various political languages of the Enlightenment into a novel synthesis, and argues that his political philosophy, often regarded as no more than a precursor of Bentham's, combines republican, contractarian, romantic and liberal as well as utilitarian themes. The result is a complex theory of punishment that derives from a sophisticated analysis of the role of the state and the nature of human motivation in commercial society. The translation used in this edition is based on the fifth Italian edition, and provides English-speaking readers with Beccaria's own order of his text for the first time. A number of pieces from his writings on political economy and the history of civilisation which were not previously available in English are also included.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chronology
Biographical glossary
Note on the texts
Bibliographical note
On Crimes and Punishments
Frontispiece
To the reader
Introduction
1. The origin of punishment
2. The right to punish
3. Consequences
4. The interpretation of the laws
5. The obscurity of the laws
6. The proportion between crimes and punishments
7. Errors in the measuring of punishments
8. The classification of crimes
9. Of honour
10. Of duels
11. Public peace
12. The purpose of punishment
13. Of witnesses
14. Evidence and forms of judgement
15. Secret denunciations
16. Of torture
17. Of the exchequer
18. Of oaths
19. Of prompt punishments
20. Violent crimes
21. The punishment of the nobility
22. Theft
23. Public disgrace
24. Parasites
25. Banishment and confiscations
26. Family feeling
27. Lenience in punishing
28. The death penalty
29. Of detention awaiting trial
30. Trials and prescriptions
31. Crimes difficult to prove
32. Suicide
33. Smuggling
34. Of debtors
35. Asylums
36. On setting a price on men's heads
37. Attempted crimes, accomplices and immunity
38. Leading interrogations, depositions
39. Of a particular kind of crime
40. False ideas of utility
41. How to prevent crimes
42. The sciences
43. Magistrates
44. Public awards
45. Education
46. Pardons
47. Conclusion
To Jean Baptiste d'Alembert
To André Morellet
Inaugural Lecture
Reflections on the Barbarousness and the Civilisation of Nations and on the Savage State of Man
Reflections on Manners and Customs
On Luxury
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]