Utility, colonies, and empire

As part of the research programme COLBENTHAM (Centre Bentham), this international conference reassesses the connections between utilitarianism and empire. It stands at the crossroads of a renewed history of empire and of the expanding field of Bentham studies, fuelled by recently published manuscripts.

How did utilitarian arguments contribute to imperialist or anti-imperialist debates in the late Enlightenment? How can we reconcile Bentham’s anti-colonial stance in Emancipate your Colonies! (1793) with his support for the establishment of a « Colonisation company » in Australia in 1831? To what extent did utilitarian ideas truly oppose paternalistic and racist ideology?

Scientific coordination:

• Professor Emmanuelle De Champs, Cergy Paris University
• Professor Anne Brunon-Ernst, Paris Panthéon-Assas University