Jeremy Bentham

Lore & Background

Bentham was born on 4 February 1747/8 O.S. [15 February 1748 N.S.] in Houndsditch, London, to attorney Jeremiah Bentham and Alicia Woodward. His wealthy family were supporters of the Tory party. He was reportedly a child prodigy: he was found as a toddler sitting at his father's desk reading a multi-volume history of England, and he began to study Latin at the age of three. He learnt to play the violin, and at the age of seven Bentham would perform sonatas by Handel during dinner parties. He attended Westminster School; in 1760, at age 12, his father sent him to The Queen's College, Oxford, where he completed his bachelor's degree in 1764, receiving the title of MA in 1767. He trained as a lawyer and, though he never practised, was called to the bar in 1769. He became deeply frustrated with the complexity of English law, which he termed the 'Demon of Chicane'. When the American colonies published their Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the British government secretly commissioned London lawyer John Lind to publish a rebuttal. His 130-page tract contained an essay titled 'Short Review of the Declaration' written by Bentham, which attacked and mocked the Americans' political philosophy. In 1786 and 1787, Bentham travelled to Krichev in White Russia (now Belarus) to visit his brother Samuel, who conceived the basic idea of a circular building at the center of a larger compound, designed to enable a small number of managers to oversee the activities of a large, unskilled workforce. Bentham began to develop this model as applicable to prisons, outlining his ideas in letters sent home to his father. He supplemented the supervisory principle with contract management, where the director would have a pecuniary interest in lowering the average rate of mortality. The Panopticon was intended to be cheaper than the prisons of his time, as it required fewer staff; 'Allow me to construct a prison on this model,' Bentham requested to a Committee for the Reform of Criminal Law, 'I will be the gaoler. You will see ... that the gaoler will have no salary—will cost nothing to the nation.' Bentham spent some sixteen years developing his ideas for the building. He was eventually successful in winning over Prime Minister William Pitt and his advisors, and in 1794 was paid £2,000 for preliminary work on the project. However, in 1803 the new Addington administration decided not to proceed. Bentham was devastated: 'They have murdered my best days.' He eventually settled for financial compensation of £23,000.

Reader's Guide

Jeremy Bentham's significance lies in founding modern utilitarianism, a moral philosophy that judges actions by their contribution to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. His principle became a cornerstone of Anglo-American legal philosophy and welfarism. Bentham advocated individual and economic freedoms, separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, the right to divorce, decriminalization of homosexual acts (in an unpublished essay), abolition of slavery, and abolition of capital punishment and physical punishment, including that of children. He also supported animal rights. Despite championing individual legal rights, he opposed natural law and natural rights as 'nonsense upon stilts,' though he cited Magna Carta to argue against unlawful treatment of convicts in Australia. His Panopticon prison design, though never built, influenced later thinkers including Michel Foucault, who argued it was paradigmatic of several 19th-century 'disciplinary' institutions. Bentham's students included his secretary and collaborator James Mill, the latter's son John Stuart Mill, legal philosopher John Austin, and American writer and activist John Neal. He 'had considerable influence on the reform of prisons, schools, poor laws, law courts, and Parliament itself.' On his death in 1832, Bentham left instructions for his body to be first dissected and then permanently preserved as an 'auto-icon,' now on public display in the entrance of the Student Centre at University College London. Although described as the 'spiritual founder' of UCL due to his advocacy for general availability of education, his direct involvement in the university's founding was limited. Bentham is famous for his book *An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation* (1789), the first major book on utilitarianism.

Did You Know?

• Bentham began studying Latin at age three and performed Handel sonatas on the violin at age seven.
• He contributed an essay titled 'Short Review of the Declaration' that attacked the American Declaration of Independence in a 130-page rebuttal secretly commissioned by the British government in 1776.
• Bentham spent sixteen years developing the Panopticon prison design and was paid £2,000 for preliminary work in 1794, but the project was abandoned in 1803.
• On his death, Bentham left instructions for his body to be dissected and preserved as an 'auto-icon,' now displayed at University College London.
• Bentham called natural law and natural rights 'nonsense upon stilts,' but cited Magna Carta to argue that treatment of convicts in Australia was unlawful.