British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer (1748–1832)
People connected to Jeremy Bentham
He built a moral calculus where right and wrong collapse to a single measure: the greatest happiness of the greatest number. That cold axiom — utilitarianism — rewired Anglo-American law and still governs how we argue about policy, punishment, and what governments owe their citizens.
Born in 1748, Bentham trained as a jurist but spent his life demolishing the scaffolding of English law — dismissing natural rights as "nonsense upon stilts" while campaigning for the abolition of slavery, capital punishment, and physical punishment of children, and arguing (in secret) for decriminalizing homosexuality. His 1789 Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation laid the foundation for modern utilitarianism and made him a leading theorist in legal philosophy and a quiet architect of welfarism. His students included James Mill and the latter's son John Stuart Mill, and hi…
Sourced, dated quotes from Jeremy Bentham
Rights are, then, the fruits of the law, and of the law alone. There are no rights without law—no rights contrary to the law—no rights anterior to the law.
Create all the happiness you are able to create: remove all the misery you are able to remove.
[I am] at heart more of a United-States-man than an Englishman.
It is with government, as with medicine. They have both but a choice of evils.
To what shall the character of utility be ascribed, if not to that which is a source of pleasure?
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