Jeremy

Bentham (1748-1832) a quick summary

Legal Positivist (classic)

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:
o Womens rights
o 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)
o Rights for homosexuals
o He was very much ahead of his time 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
o he called it nonsense upon stilts;
o he thought that unwritten law was intrinsically vague and uncertain;
o 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, for his skeleton to
be used to create an Auto-Icon which is still on display
He left more than 30,000,000 words in manuscripts they are still being
digitalized and placed online.

For further information see:

Wikipedias Jeremy Bentham page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham
University College Londons 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?