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Jeremy Bentham

1748–1832

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

The right action is the one that brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number – and pleasure and pain can be measured and compared.

Placement

Empiricism, Enlightenment & Liberalism · Northern Europe · Ethics, Politics & Law

Founder of classical utilitarianism: the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the measure of law and morality.

Key ideas

  • Principle of utility
  • Hedonic calculus
  • Panopticon

Students: John Stuart Mill

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Influence

Influenced by 2

  • David Hume

    influenced by

    On reading Hume’s Treatise, Bentham felt ‘as if scales had fallen’ from his eyes: utility was the test of virtue (A Fragment on Government, 1776). J. Bentham, A Fragment on Government (1776); D. Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book III (1740); SEP “Jeremy Bentham”

    Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO

    David Hume › 1711–1776

  • Cesare Beccaria

    influenced by

    Bentham took up Beccaria’s formula of ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’ and his case for proportionate punishment (Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789). C. Beccaria, Dei delitti e delle pene (1764); J. Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789); H. L. A. Hart, “Bentham and Beccaria”, in Essays on Bentham (1982)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Cesare Beccaria › 1738–1794

Influenced 4

  • John Stuart Mill taught

    taught ✓

    Mill was taught by his father James Mill, not by Bentham, but grew up in Bentham’s circle; he called his reading of Bentham’s Traités de législation (ed. Dumont) in 1821–22 an epoch in his life and in 1825–27 edited Bentham’s Rationale of Judicial Evidence. A mentorship rather than formal teaching. J. S. Mill, Autobiography (1873), chs. 3–4

    Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata

    John Stuart Mill › 1806–1873

  • Henry Sidgwick

    influenced

    Sidgwick took Bentham’s utilitarianism, with its impartial count of everyone’s happiness, as one of the three methods he examined in The Methods of Ethics (1874). H. Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics (1874); Outlines of the History of Ethics (1886); SEP “Henry Sidgwick”

    Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO

    Henry Sidgwick › 1838–1900

  • Liang Qichao

    influenced

    In 1902 Liang introduced Bentham’s utilitarianism to Chinese readers in Xinmin congbao (“The Doctrine of Bentham, Master of Utilitarianism”), reworking it rather than simply adopting it. Liang Qichao, “Leli zhuyi taidou Bianqin zhi xueshuo”, Xinmin congbao (1902)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Liang Qichao › 1873–1929

  • Peter Singer

    influenced

    Singer made Bentham’s question ‘Can they suffer?’ and the maxim, ascribed to Bentham, that each counts for one the basis of equal consideration for animals (Animal Liberation, 1975). P. Singer, Animal Liberation (1975); J. Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789); SEP “Jeremy Bentham”; SEP “The Moral Status of Animals”

    Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO

    Peter Singer › b. 1946

Criticism

Criticized by 3

  • Herbert Spencer

    criticised by

    Spencer objected that Bentham’s greatest-happiness principle gives no guidance, since happiness is undefinable, and put the law of equal freedom in its place (Social Statics, 1851). H. Spencer, Social Statics (1851), Introduction (“The Doctrine of Expediency”), ch. 4

    Evidence: AI draft

    Herbert Spencer › 1820–1903

  • John Rawls

    criticised by

    Rawls objected that Bentham’s classical utilitarianism applies one person’s principle of choice to society and ‘does not take seriously the distinction between persons’ (A Theory of Justice, 1971). J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1971), §§ 5–6, 30

    Evidence: AI draft

    John Rawls › 1921–2002

  • Bernard Williams

    criticised by

    Williams argued that utilitarianism as founded by Bentham sums welfare impersonally and leaves no room for agents’ own projects and integrity (Utilitarianism: For and Against, 1973). B. Williams, “A Critique of Utilitarianism”, in J. J. C. Smart & B. Williams, Utilitarianism: For and Against (1973); Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (1985), ch. 5

    Evidence: AI draft

    Bernard Williams › 1929–2003

Criticizes 1

  • John Locke influenced by

    influenced by

    Building on the empiricist psychology of Locke and Hume, Bentham took pleasure and pain as the ultimate motives and measures of action (Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789). J. Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789); J. Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding (1689); IEP “Jeremy Bentham”

    Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO

    criticised

    Bentham dismissed the original contract as a fiction (against Blackstone, 1776) and natural rights as ‘nonsense upon stilts’ (against the French Declaration), both central to Locke. J. Bentham, A Fragment on Government (1776), ch. I §§36–48; Nonsense upon Stilts (written c. 1795); SEP “Jeremy Bentham”

    Evidence: AI draft

    John Locke › 1632–1704

Works

Position

Bentham held that nature has placed mankind under two masters, pain and pleasure. The principle of utility follows: actions and laws are right insofar as they produce the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Pleasures and pains can in principle be measured by intensity, duration, certainty and other dimensions, in a “felicific calculus”. On this basis Bentham criticised traditional law, called natural rights “nonsense upon stilts” and advocated reforms of the penal system, democracy, legal codification and animal welfare. His design for the Panopticon prison later became a symbol of surveillance through Foucault. He founded classical utilitarianism, refined by his pupil John Stuart Mill.

Life & context

Born in London in 1748, Bentham entered Oxford at twelve and trained as a lawyer but never practised; he devoted his life to reforming law and institutions. Financially independent, he wrote enormous quantities of manuscripts and gathered reformers such as James Mill around him. His ideas shaped the spirit of University College London, where his preserved body is still displayed. He died in 1832.

Further main works

  • A Fragment on Government (1776)
  • Constitutional Code (1830)

Appears in

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

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