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Why? Because frankly I am a little curious about the mastermind behind utilitarianism. From what we heard in class, he seemed a little too intense for my liking. Raising a friends child as a test subject for your theories seems a little bit too much if you ask me. So I did some digging.
Bentham was born in 1748 in London. According to anecdotes that I hope are true with all my heart, as a toddler he was found reading a multi-tome history of England and by age three he has started studying Latin. What else is three year old supposed to do to fill up all their free time? BUT WAIT it gets better; by twelve (12 PEOPLE) he was sent to Oxford to study law. He was in college at Oxford in 1760. I am starting to understand that he was something special.
However his father was bound to be let down; Bentham decided that he did not like law and instead spent the rest of his life writing about law and how it could be better.
Although we know him for utilitarianism, that was just his starting point. He critiqued EVERYTHING in society to determine their actual usefulness. He was a critic of both natural law (a group of unchanging moral principles regarding human conduct) and contractarianism (the theory in Political Philosophy on the legitimacy of political authority, and the ethical theory concerning the origin, or legitimate content, of moral norms).
Not only did he find faults with this theory, he was the first person able to find a utilitarian justification for democracy. However my personal favorite is that he advocated for the decriminalization of homosexuality which was not actually decriminalized in England until 1967 however this was only between two men who act in private. To say he was ahead of his time is a little bit of an understatement.
All things considered, he was a pretty interesting guy.
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Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed you "history lesson" and humor that was present throughout your post. I think that understanding who Jeremy Bentham was is important in understanding the roots of utilitarianism. Bentham had many interesting viewpoints, and I can see the connections between his beliefs and the opinions and beliefs of J.S. Mill. I agree with you that Bentham was ahead of his times in not only his advocacy for homosexuality, but also with his educational gifts. Overall, I loved the comedy that you could add to this post.
It's interesting to hear about the background of Jeremy Bentham especially since we mostly focused on John Stuart Mill in class. I agree he was very intense, but hearing about his early life explains more about his character and motivations. He was a man before his time, and understanding how he perceived the world opens up some of the mystery behind him. It helped me understand why he thought the way he did and how he had the capability to establish the philosophy of utilitarianism.
ReplyDeleteThis was really neat. It was cool to find out more about Jeremy Bentham. I was interested about him in class as well and I'm glad someone decided to do more research on him. He was really fascinating and I feel like my mind has been opened. It was cool to know more about the man who influenced Mill so heavily.
ReplyDeleteThis was really neat. It was cool to find out more about Jeremy Bentham. I was interested about him in class as well and I'm glad someone decided to do more research on him. He was really fascinating and I feel like my mind has been opened. It was cool to know more about the man who influenced Mill so heavily.
ReplyDeleteCaitlin,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated your history lesson on Bentham. I think that with the understanding of how Bentham was as a child it makes more sense that Mill was expected to do so much at a young age. It is interesting seeing how ahead of his time Bentham was in his views, especially his social views. Even though he lived during the latter half of the 18th century in comparison to some, he is still ahead of the times of today. Thanks for giving us a little more background on Bentham, it really helps in further analyzing Mill.
Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteGood job! I was also interested in learning more about Bentham after hearing the small part of his story we touched on in class in relation to J.S. Mill's childhood. Aside from googling about the fact that his body is on display in a college...I didn't look into his story much more. Your post had many interesting facts about him, his background and other moral positions he held. Gee, I would have loved to have started college at twelve and be done with my graduate work already.
After reading this, I kind of want to meet Bentham in real life (alive of course, not his preserved body). It puts a little perspective on why he chose to use Mill as a science experiment at least. Though still not a great idea, Bentham's own raising presumably didn't end in a mental breakdown, so it is reasonable to assume he would think it could be applied to other children effectively. I wonder if, assuming he lived long enough to witness Mill's breakdown, Bentham realized that not all children could handle such a stringent childhood or if he just assumed Mill wasn't "strong" enough to handle it.
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