Jeremy Bentham

Born: 1748

Died: 1832, at the age of 84

Country of origin: England

• Areas of focus:      
  
  
• Major Books written by Jeremy Bentham:
  
  
  • "Fragment on Government" (1776) (Published anonymously)
    
  • "Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation" (1780)
    
  • "Punishments and Rewards" (1811)
    
  • "Parliamentary Reform Cathecism" (1817)
    
  
  
• Cocktail summary of Jeremy Bentham's main ideas:
  
  
  Jeremy Bentham was the founding father of the Utilitarian approach to Ethics, which argues that the definition of a "good" action is that which generates the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. The definition of a "bad" action is anything which removes happiness or pleasure. He sought to redefine morality and ethics according to their usefulness, or "utility", towards generating pleasure and happiness, not according to any other standard. He called his system the "Greatest Happiness System".
  
  His most famous quote is "The greatest good for the greatest number". In addition to this noble-sounding principle, he argued that the scientific method could be used to objectively determine whether a moral principle was good or bad. He actually created a mathematical formula to do this, which he called the "Hedonic Calculus" or the "Felicific Calculus". Do you want to determine if an action is moral or immoral? Just plug it into this formula and it would produce a fool-proof moral answer. This calculus would take into account 7 specific variables (which Bentham called "Dimensions") regarding a specific action's possible outcome in terms of pleasure or pain:
  
  
  • The intensity of the pleasure or pain in question.
    
  • Its duration.
    
  • The certainty or uncertainty of the pleasure or pain.
    
  • Its "Propinquity": how remote the pleasure or pain is.
    
  • Its "Fecundity": the chances of it being repeated.
    
  • Its Purity: the chances of it not being repeated.
    
  • The number of people who will be affected by the action in question.
    
    
  The resulting moral formula would look like this: X1*X2*X3*X4*X5*X6*X7 = N
  
  These 7 variables would be weighed against each other to produce the best option, pro or con, against the particular action or policy in question. (Jeremy was a great believer in all things mathematic).
  
  He had studied law as a student, and passed the Bar, but never practiced Law. Instead, he spent his life criticizing the immensely complex British legal codes of the time and suggesting improvements. He also argued for the greater availability of education to the masses, since he believed that the more education a person receives the more likely it is that they will make moral and ethical decisions along rational guidelines. (He was a firm believer in the idea that smart people don't do bad things).
  
  In his later years he created a journal - The Westminster Review - with his godson John Stuart Mill, which served as a forum for like-minded "philosophical radicals" to discuss issues related to Utilitarianism in Ethics, Law, and public policy.
  
  
• Jeremy Bentham praised & criticized:
  
  
  • Bentham's Utilitarianism is praised for taking Ethics away from the authority of tradition and focusing instead on its practical effects. It was a very Laissez-faire approach to Ethics, taking a hands-off approach to personal conduct, which mirrored a lot of the free-market economic arguments going on at the time in Britain. It was similar to the words of his contemporary Thomas Jefferson, who was busy writing a minor document in America at the time, which argued for "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness".
    
    In addition to skepticism about his idea that moral question could be answered by mathematical rules, his ideas have also been criticized for apparently not taking into account how one actually defines Happiness. If the genocide of a minority causes the majority in a culture to experience happiness, is genocide therefore defined as a good action? Bentham argued that his theories of legal restrictions would prevent this type of loophole, but many have been unable to follow his suggestion that Ethics can be purely defined along pragmatic lines. It sounds noble, but Happiness is often a slippery word to define, and sometimes good outcomes require personal sacrifice and temporary pain.
    
    
• Notable Facts about Jeremy Bentham:
  
  
  • Religious affiliation:
    Jeremy Bentham was a true believer in the idea that religion was not required to maintain a society's foundation of altruistic morality and ethics. He was only interested in religion in so far as it created a healthy morality, as he defined it. Throughout his life he gradually moved from a pragmatic attitude towards religion, to Agnosticism regarding all questions of religious doctrine, to eventual affirmed Atheism in his later years. Religion, for Bentham, was strictly a tool and had nothing useful to say about the actual nature of things.
    
    
  • Jeremy Bentham was Godfather to John Stuart Mill, who was in turn Godfather to Bertrand Russell, forming a distinguished lineage of upper-crust British smart guys.
    
    
  • Bentham had perhaps the strangest Last Will and Testament of any modern Philosopher. He had requested that, at his death, his body be dissected in the presence of his friends. His skeleton was then to be fully clothed in his favorite suit, and his head mummified, then be positioned on his favorite chair in a sitting position, and placed on exhibit in a a wooden cabinet in the University College of London. His body would then sit and watch history pass by, with visitors strolling by to view his body. He called the cabinet his "Auto Icon", and he sits there to this day. (Due to student-pranks which involved stealing his head on several occasions, the head has been replaced by a wax replica).
    
    
• Quotes:
  
  
  • "The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation."
    
    
  • "Every law is an infraction of liberty".
    
    
  • "The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainty of the law."
    
    
  • "Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished".
    
    
  • "Tyranny and anarchy are never far asunder".
    
    
  • "Every law is an infraction of liberty."
    
    
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