Doug Long

Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science

Long_D

PhD, University College London, UK
E-mail: dlong@uwo.ca

Research Interests

Professor Long specializes in the history of early modern political thought, with an emphasis on utilitarianism, particularly the political thought of Jeremy Bentham, Adam Smith and David Hume.

He also has an interest in contemporary political theory, particularly in comparing the treatment of freedom, power, justice and democracy in modern and postmodern authors and texts.

Current Research Projects

1. Editing Preparatory Principles Inserenda: Early Writings of Jeremy Bentham on Politics and Jurisprudence

To be sent to Oxford University Press (UK) in the Fall of 2013, this will be one volume in the definitive 75-volume edition of The collected Works of Jeremy Bentham. The text comprises over 600 pages of unpublished autograph manuscript material from the Bentham manuscript collection held at University College London (UK). It throws new light on Bentham’s utilitarianism, and on both philosophical and applied aspects of his science of jurisprudence.

2. Jeremy Bentham: Architect of Jurisprudence

This is a collection of my essays on key figures who influenced the development of Bentham’s thought, such as Sir Francis Bacon, John Locke and Claude Adrien Helvetius, and on aspects of Bentham’s thought that are freshly illuminated by the contents of the "Preparatory Principles Inserenda” manuscripts; e.g. the principle of utility, the idea of punishment, the philosophical presuppositions of a universal system of jurisprudence, and the applications of a critical science of legislation to political institutions and practices. 

Selected Publications

Books

  • 1977: Long, Douglas G., Bentham on Liberty, University of Toronto Press, (294 pp.) 

Essays in Collection

  • 2013: ‘Hume’s Imaginative Historiography” in David Hume as an Historian, ed. M. Spencer, Penn State UP.
  • 2006: ‘Adam Smith’s Politics’, in the Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith, ed. K. Haakonssen, Cambridge UP, pp. 288-318.

Refereed Journal Articles

  • 2013: ‘Hume’s Imaginative Historiography” forthcoming in David Hume as an Historian, ed. M. Spencer, Penn State UP.
  • 2006:  ‘Adam Smith’s Politics’, a chapter in the Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith, ed. K. Haakonssen, Cambridge UP, pp. 288-318.
  • 2004:  ‘A Theory of Philosophical Inquiry: Unity and Plurality in Adam Smith’s Thought’, in the Journal of Scottish Philosophy, Vol. II, No. 1, Winter, pp. 1-21.

Encyclopedia

  • 2013: The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Utilitarianism, ed. J. E. Crimmins. Entries by DL: ‘Beccaria’, ‘Helvetius’, ‘Hume’, ‘Hobbes’, ‘Smith’, ‘Foucault’, ‘Hayek’, ‘Blackstone’, ‘Democracy’, ‘Interests’, ‘Liberty’.

Recent Conference Presentations

  • 2014: “Prefatoria: draft introductions to Bentham’s Magnum Opus”, to be presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies, Yokohama, August 20 – 22.
  • 2014: “Bentham's Science of Legislation: formative influences (Bacon, Helvetius, Beccaria, Lock, Smith”, to be presented to a colloquium of the Bentham Research Project, University College London, April.
  • 2013: “Bentham’s early manuscripts: from Philosophy of Jurisprudence to Political Science”, presented to the UWO Political Science Political Inquiry Colloquium, April.
  • 2011: “’Preparatory Principles’: a report on a new Bentham text”, presented to a Biennial meeting of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies, Lucca, Italy, June 24th.
  • 2011: “’Punishment’ and Politics in Bentham’s early writings on jurisprudence”,  presented at the British Legal History Conference at Cambridge University, July 15th.
  • 2010: “The idea of ‘system’ in Jeremy Bentham and Adam Smith”, presented at a seminar sponsored by the Centre for Studies in Intellectual History, University of Sussex, January 17th.
  • 2009: “Jeremy Bentham and John Locke”, presented to a colloquium of Bentham scholars convened by the Bentham Project, faculty of Laws, University College London, UK, October 4th.
  • 2008: "Utility and Justice in Bentham’s early legal theory“, presented at a biannual meeting of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies, Berkeley California, Sept. 11 – 14.

Awards and Distinctions

  • 2013: Recipient of the USC Teaching Honour Roll Award of Excellence
  • 2013: first recipient of the Bentham Project Research Scholarship, funded by University College London, to support publication of “Preparatory Principles Inserenda” (see above)
  • 2009-2015: Honorary Senior Research Associate, Bentham Project, Faculty of Law, University College London, UK.
  • 2000, 2003, 2006: Nominated for a Students’ Council Award of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
  • 1989 - Present: Member of the Executive Committee (and founding Chair) of The International Society for Utilitarian Studies.
  • 1988 - Present: Member Editorial Board, Utilitas (Journal of Utilitarian Studies).