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Unit 9: Jeremy Bentham

Bentham helped in founding the University of London. He donated 170 boxes and bundles of his Notes
books and writings. The offices at South Kensington have his bust till today. The college has his
skeleton dressed in his favourite clothes, holding his walking stick “Dobbin”, with which he used
to stroll every morning in his Westminster garden. Being fond of inventing playful names for
objects of daily use, he called his dining room “the shop”, his teapot “Dick”, and work desk
“Caroccio”. His table was raised on a platform and surrounded by a sunken walking passage,
which he called the “vibrating ditch” or the “well”. He composed humorous songs and was fond
of rituals. Before going to bed, he spent an hour preparing for it. As he grew older, he became
more light-hearted and casual.
Bentham started and financed the Westminster Review in 1824 with the idea of propagating his
utilitarian principles. One of his critics wrote in 1830 that Bentham’s exposition of the defects of
the legal system was the greatest service that he or any other English political philosopher had
ever rendered. Bentham’s “new science”, which would enable a legislator to mathematically
measure and administer happiness, helped England to avoid the excesses, terror and tears of a
violent revolution. This largely explained why Marxism and other radical doctrines did not have
much influence in England.
Bentham lived till the age of 84, “codifying like any dragon”, a phrase which he used to describe
himself. His writings were voluminous, considering they ran into 11 stout volumes in close print,
in double columns. His other famous works (not mentioned so far) include An Introduction to the
Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), Anarchical Fallacies (1791), Discourse on Civil and Penal
Legislation (1802), The Limits of Jurisprudence (1802), Indirect Legislation (1802), A Theory of Punishments
and Rewards (1811), A Treatise on Judicial Evidence (1813), Papers upon Codification and Public Instruction
(1817), The Book of Fallacies (1824), and Rationale of Evidence (1827). The last one was edited by J.S. Mill.
Bentham described himself as “J.B., the most ambitious of the ambitious”. He desired to preside
over an empire consisting of the whole human race that included all cultures, all places, present as
well as future. He expressed a desire to awaken once in a century to contemplate the prospect of
a world gradually adopting his principles and making steady progress in happiness and wisdom.
Towards this end he laboured hard, directed by one guiding principle of laying down the
fundamentals of a “new science” whose knowledge held the key to all of humankind’s problems.
Miranda, Rivadavia, Bolivar, Santander, Jose de Valle and Andrade were Bentham’s disciples,
adopting and implementing his principles in the constitutions of their respective countries in
South America. Edward Livingston, the outstanding American codifier, described Bentham as one
man, both in ancient and modern times, to have thrown light on the science of legislation.
Bentham befriended and corresponded with Rammohan Roy. Rammohan himself picked up from
Bentham the rejection of the natural rights theory and the distinction between law and morals. He
was also influenced by the principles of Utilitarianism. But unlike Bentham, who was more rigid,
Rammohan accepted a wider variety with regard to principles governing different societies. Besides,
Rammohan was an ardent champion of freedom of the press, for that would promote freedom to
think and express, and thus anticipated many of the arguments of J.S. Mill on the importance of
liberty in a modern liberal society.
Bentham was a compulsive writer and a reviser. He would constantly get diverted from his study
to clarify something written earlier. One of his contemporaries remarked that he could not play a
game of badminton without attempting to redesign the shuttlecock:
Bentham himself was always of a practical bent, not wanting to weave fantastical
schemes but to get actual proposals into effect. His great propensity for detail gives
some of his proposals a mad or impractical aura. He could not design a poorhouse
without designing the inmate’s hats; similarly he could not design an electoral system
without planning the size of the ballot box.

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