Bentham, Jeremy (1748–1832)

Jeremy Bentham was born in London, and in 1760, he entered Queen's College, Oxford. When he graduated in 1764, he started the study of law at Lincoln's Inn, London. Bentham never practiced law, although he was qualified to do so, preferring instead to write in favor of both legal reform and the reform of social institutions such as prisons. Indeed, one of Bentham's main projects was the design of the “Panopticon,” a model prison where the prisoners could be observed at all times by the guards—who could not themselves be seen by the prisoners.

Drawing on both the English tradition of empiricism and his belief in the power of reason, Bentham held that human behavior could be described scientifically. Some of his major works based on these principles include A Fragment on Government, Plea for the Constitution, and On the Liberty of the Press and Public Discussions. Bentham believed that all human behavior could be explained by reference to the twin motivations of pleasure and pain.

The theory of psychological hedonism formed the basis of Bentham's account of utilitarianism, the moral view that he helped found and that he famously described in his major work, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Utilitarianism was based on the principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number. According to its proponents, an act was right insofar as it produced the greatest happiness for the greatest number and wrong insofar [Page 162]as it failed to do so. For Bentham, it was not only the happiness of people that mattered morally, but the happiness of all sentient beings counted as well.

This does not mean, however, that Bentham (or other utilitarians, such as James Mill, John Stuart Mill, and, more recently, Peter Singer) believed in “animal rights.” This is because Bentham did not believe that anyone, animal or human, possessed any natural rights at all. That is, Bentham did not believe that any being possessed any rights by nature. Indeed, Bentham is famous for claiming that such rights are nonsense on stilts. Bentham's rejection of natural rights was informed by his legal philosophy, in which he held that laws are simply commands expressing the will of the sovereign. (This approach to the philosophy of law is termed legal positivism, and Bentham had a great influence on 20th-century legal positivists such as J. L. Austin and H. L. A. Hart.) As such, for Bentham, there is no such thing as natural law—and hence no such things as natural rights. All rights are simply legal rights, created by the law. On his death, Bentham was, at his own request, dissected, embalmed, dressed, and placed in a chair at University College, London University, which institution he helped finance through a large bequest.