Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer who founded modern utilitarianism — the ethical theory that the right action is the one that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number. His relentless application of the 'principle of utility' to law, punishment, government, economics, and social institutions made him one of the most influential reformers of the modern age, and his radical proposals — from prison reform and animal rights to the separation of church and state and the decriminalization of homosexuality — were often centuries ahead of their time.
Key Ideas
Key Contributions
- ● Founded modern utilitarianism: the systematic doctrine that the morally right action is that which produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number
- ● Developed the felicific calculus — a method for quantifying pleasures and pains along seven dimensions to determine optimal action
- ● Advocated for the radical codification of law, replacing the irrational accretion of common law with systematic, rationally designed legal codes
- ● Designed the Panopticon as a model institution embodying the principle of efficient surveillance and rational punishment
- ● Extended moral consideration to animals, arguing that the question is not 'Can they reason?' but 'Can they suffer?'
- ● Argued for democratic government, universal suffrage (including women), freedom of the press, and the separation of church and state
- ● Pioneered consequentialist reasoning in ethics, insisting that the morality of actions depends solely on their consequences for human welfare
Core Questions
Key Claims
- ✓ Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure — they alone determine what we ought to do
- ✓ The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the measure of right and wrong
- ✓ Each person counts for one, and no one for more than one — all pleasures and pains are to be weighed equally regardless of whose they are
- ✓ The question about animals is not Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but Can they suffer?
- ✓ All punishment is mischief — it is only justified when it prevents a greater evil
- ✓ Every law is an evil, for every law is an infraction of liberty — law is justified only when it prevents a greater evil
- ✓ Natural rights are simple nonsense; natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense — nonsense upon stilts
Biography
Early Life and Education
Jeremy Bentham was born on February 15, 1748, in Houndsditch, London, into a wealthy family. A child prodigy, he entered Queen's College, Oxford, at the age of twelve and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, though he never practiced law, finding the English legal system irrational and unjust.
The Principle of Utility
Bentham's life work was the systematic application of one principle — the principle of utility, or the greatest happiness principle — to every domain of human affairs. His Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789) laid the foundations: nature has placed humanity under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure, and the right action is that which tends to produce the greatest happiness of the greatest number. He developed a 'felicific calculus' for measuring pleasures and pains along seven dimensions: intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extent.
Legal and Social Reform
Bentham applied utilitarianism to a sweeping program of institutional reform. He designed the Panopticon — a circular prison in which a single guard could observe all inmates — as a model of efficient, rational punishment. He argued for codification of the law, democratic suffrage (including women's suffrage), freedom of the press, the separation of church and state, and the decriminalization of homosexuality and usury.
His influence was international: he corresponded with reformers and governments across the world and became a hero to liberal and radical movements in Europe and Latin America.
Death and Legacy
Bentham died on June 6, 1832. In accordance with his wishes, his body was preserved as an 'auto-icon' and is displayed at University College London, which he inspired. His utilitarian philosophy, developed and refined by John Stuart Mill, remains one of the most influential ethical theories in the world.
Methods
Notable Quotes
"{'text': 'The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.', 'source': 'A Fragment on Government', 'year': 1776}"
"{'text': 'The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?', 'source': 'Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, XVII.1', 'year': 1789}"
"{'text': 'Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense — nonsense upon stilts.', 'source': 'Anarchical Fallacies', 'year': 1796}"
"{'text': 'It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.', 'source': 'A Fragment on Government, Preface', 'year': 1776}"
Major Works
- A Fragment on Government Treatise (1776)
- An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation Treatise (1789)
- Panopticon Treatise (1791)
- The Rationale of Punishment Treatise (1830)
- Deontology Treatise (1834)
Influenced
- John Stuart Mill · influence
- Peter Singer · influence
Influenced by
- David Hume · influence
Sources
- An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (ed. J.H. Burns and H.L.A. Hart)
- Bentham by Ross Harrison (Routledge)
- The Cambridge Companion to Utilitarianism (ed. Ben Eggleston and Dale Miller)
- Jeremy Bentham: An Odyssey of Ideas by Philip Schofield
External Links
Translations
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