Prof. Mark Tunick tunick@fau.edu

Jeremy Bentham

1. Intro to Bentham's political thought
1. Bentham's enormous ambitions
   • foundationalist: "there is no medium between truth and falsehood"; The foundational principle of utility is "that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question."
   • scientist: "the only true track of investigation is the track of experiment and observation." As scientist Bentham claims both to explain and prescribe.
   • social critic (Bentham as immanent critic)
2. Has Bentham triumphed?
   • yes in some ways (rational choice theory; behaviorism; entered our language)
   • no in other ways (wasn't successful in practice)
3. Life (1748-1832)
4. Politics: Against Burke and Paine
1. Bentham on justified political authority
   • an institution is justified if it augments the utility of "the community in question."
     1. Rejects Burke's "tradition" argument
     2. Rejects Paine's consent theory: individuals are to be "made to achieve happiness" through proper legislation (PML p. 14)
   • Redistributive implications
     1. 1789 mss: principle of utility is neutral between x, which yields 1 utile each for 10 people, and y, which yields 2 utiles each for 5, and none for 5.
     2. 1831: requires the greatest happiness of the greatest number; would now prefer x to y. Why?
     3. Bentham's "socialism" (See Pannomial Fragments ch. 4 Sec. 4)
   • Problems
     1. which is the relevant community?
     2. who counts as members of the community?
     3. can the state do anything to augment utility?
     4. utilitarianism and relativism: if an 'evil' practice makes a people happy, is it therefore justified?--discusion of 'Of the Influence of Time and Place...'
2. Bentham's criticism of tradition and common law
   • Examples of homosexual sodomy and infanticide
   • Criticism of Blackstone and English common law
   • Bentham's criticism of the 'rights of man'
1. Bentham's positivism: "there are no rights without law"
2. Bentham's emotivism: appealing to rights is "bawling upon paper"
3. Problem with utilitarian account of rights: unacceptable implications?
2. Utilitarianism
1. Caution on using the label
2. Historical note: Who invented Utilitarianism?
3. Bentham's utilitarianism
   • The issue: what is right?
   • competing answers
   • Bentham's answer: that is right which augments pleasure and diminishes pain (1) right is not prior to the good for Bentham (2) rejects natural rights (3) examples: promising, punishment
4. Different versions of utilitarianism i
   • Act vs. rule utilitarianism
   • Hare's 2-level utilitarianism
   • Hedonistic vs. non-hedonistic
   • negative utilitarianism
5. Criticisms
1. crass, superficial
   • Nietzsche
   • the happiness pill example
   • Bernard Williams: utilitarianism can't make sense of the value of integrity
2. empirically false
3. can't quantify/measure pain or pleasure
3. Bentham on the best form of government: democracy?
   • Bentham vs. Burke
   • Bentham's ambivalence regarding democracy
     1. unnerved by French Revolution
     2. believes legislator can have knowledge, so why be bound by popular will?
   • Bentham's change of views: comes to favor parliamentary reform and the rule of the many
4. Is Bentham too reliant on technical expertise to be "political"?