When1: 1776
When2: 1843
Who: Jeremy Bentham [Bentham, Jeremy]
What: philosopher
Where: London, England
works\ Fragment on Government [1776]; Of Laws in General [1782]; Defense of Usury [1787]; Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation [1789]; Treatise on Civil and Penal Legislation [1802]; Rationale of Reward [1825]; Anarchical Fallacies [1843]
Detail: He lived 1748 to 1832 and founded empiricist philosophy. His ideas led to fewer crimes carrying death penalty, new divorce and bankruptcy laws, new married-woman rights, and real-property law reform.
Epistemology
Sentences are meaning units. Sentences using certain words or about certain thoughts can translate into other sentences without those words or thoughts {paraphrasis} {contextual definition}, which people can perceive and so understand, for example, in terms of pain and pleasure.
Pronouns and demonstratives {egocentric particular} refer to different things in different contexts.
Ethics
The greatest good is pleasure. People pursue pleasure and avoid pain, for themselves or others. Both pleasure and pain are clear in meaning and are measurable. The greatest good for the greatest number is the goal of social ethics {utilitarianism, Bentham}. All actions are reasonable and good that promote "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" {greatest happiness principle} {utility principle} {principle of utility}.
Value systems can measure pleasure and pain in individual and social relations or actions. Action consequences can have values, and mind can choose the best action. Action effects on others' gains or losses determine act's morality. Ethical acts give utility, pleasure, and happiness to the most people.
Politics
Law is about rights and duties, which are complex ideas, not simple perceptions. Natural rights have no corresponding duties and so are contradictions. Legal rights have legal duties and so are rational. Experiments must continually test legal rights and duties. No rights are unchangeable or permanent. Description of, or wish for, right does not make it exist.
Laws should be socially useful and not merely reflect customs. Laws can produce the greatest happiness for the most people by punishing and rewarding to balance all people's desires. Law should make public and private interests coincide and ensure subsistence, abundance, security, and equality. Laws should make people pursue happiness, to attain general happiness. Perhaps, tradition and imperialism do not do this. Women's rights help.
Punishment is to deter people from causing pain or reducing pleasure, so punishment should be correct amount for this purpose.
Social contract, in which people agree to obey authority to obtain certain rights and benefits, is legal contract, not foundation for law.
Contract depends on maximizing utility.
Diminishing marginal utility causes equality to make more utility. Ability to subsist has greater utility than mere general abundance. Security has great utility.
Democracy allows the greatest number of people to seek to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
Social Sciences>Philosophy>History>Ethics
Outline of Knowledge Database Home Page
Description of Outline of Knowledge Database
Date Modified: 2022.0224