Bentham, Jeremy: Classical School

Method

Bentham's analytical and empirical method emphasized conceptual clarity and deductive argument. It was influenced by the philosophes of the Enlightenment, such as Cesare Beccaria, Claude [Page 89]Helvétius, Denis Diderot, and Voltaire, and also by John Locke and David Hume. Bentham followed the example of Locke in emphasizing the importance of reason over custom and tradition, and of precision in the use of terms. Hume provided Bentham with insights into human psychology as well as a secular version of the principle of utility, which had frequently been annexed to theological views.

Bentham's method is evident in his criticisms of the law and the moral and political uses of language. He was influenced by Beccaria not only concerning issues of crime and punishment and the relevance of utility but also on exactness in legal discourse. One of Bentham's principal targets was the presence of “fictions” in the law. Terms like relation, right, power, and possession were “fictional”—that is, they involved taking a part or aspect of a thing in abstraction from, and as, the thing itself—with the result that people were deceived or confused. In those cases where the terms or “wholes” could be justified by explaining their properties or how they followed from their “parts,” and where nothing was left at an abstract level, Bentham allowed that the terms could continue to be used. Otherwise, they were to be abandoned. One particular fiction that Bentham hoped to eliminate was the legal claim that there was some original contract that explained why there was any law at all.

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