Who is Jeremy Bentham?

• British jurist, philosopher, social reformer.
• He wrote several famous books including Of Laws in General (1782) And An Introduction to the Principles of Morals And Legislation (1789).
• He did not believe in God – he was an atheist.
• He was a social reform advocate and he wrote on many topics including:
  • Women’s rights
  • Animal rights (he was against harming animals although he accepted that they could be used for food; he also accepted that they could be used for medical experiments if it resulted in the greater happiness)
  • Rights for homosexuals
  • Many of his ideas were not published in his lifetime, some of the reforms he argued for were later realized.
• He is famous for being the founder of a theory called “utilitarianism.”
• He ridiculed natural law.
• He called it “nonsense upon stilts.”
• He thought that unwritten law was intrinsically vague and uncertain.
• He thought that natural law was nothing more than ‘private opinion in disguise.’
• He criticized the common law for being inconsistent, confusing, using legal jargon and for being difficult to understand for normal people.
• He criticized the use of ‘judicial precedent’ and the principle of stare decisis (which means deciding like cases alike) that is part of the common law legal systems. He argued that following precedent was nothing more than ‘superstitious respect for antiquity.’
• He called for all of the common law to be codified into a single set of statutes. By codifying it, judges would just have to apply the law, reducing the role of judges and lawyers.
• He wanted an underlying principle for the law – so it would be more systematic.
• He said that the goal of individuals (and society) is happiness.
• What is happiness? The presence of pleasure and the absence of pain.
• Famous quote: “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.”
• Individuals (and society) should aim at maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain.
• The happiness principle: it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.
• He created a way of calculating how much “happiness” any action would create. (That calculation was called the “felicific calculus” – see below.)
• His theory, utilitarianism, looks to the consequences of actions.
• His ideas were carried on and developed by his student, John Stuart Mill (J.S. Mill).
• How did he calculate whether something would produce more pleasure than pain? He Created the “felicific calculus.”

1. Intensity: how strong is the pleasure?
2. Duration: how long will the pleasure last?
3. Certainty or uncertainty: how likely or unlikely is it that the pleasure will occur?
4. Propinquity or remoteness: how soon will the pleasure occur?
5. Fecundity: the probability that the action will be followed by sensations of the same kind.
6. Purity: the probability that it will not be followed by sensations of the opposite kind.
7. Extent: how many people will be affected?

• After he died, he gave instructions for his body to be dissected and his skeleton to be used to create an “Auto-Icon” which is still on display.

For further information, see:

• Wikipedia’s Jeremy Bentham page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham
• University College London’s Bentham Project: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project

Criticisms of his utilitarianism:

1. If there are no underlying ‘natural law’ ideals to bind all mankind that might lead to abuses of power by legislatures – unlimited power is a bad thing.
2. The ‘happiness principle’ might lead to abuse by the majority against the minority.
3. Society might condone “torture” and other morally bad things if it leads to the happiness of the majority.
4. As for using consequences to judge what is right and wrong, how can we be sure about the consequences of any particular action? And how do we weigh pleasure against pain?