Page 175 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Unit 9: Jeremy Bentham

Bentham also supported education for women, and proposed a new curriculum called Christomathia Notes
(1816). This formed the basis of the University College, the first English university to admit all
students without discriminating on the basis of race, class, religion or sex. Education and suffrage
would enable a woman to be a morally autonomous person and a politically enlightened citizen.
Ball disagreed with the lavish praise that was showered on Bentham for his pro-feminist views
(Halvey 1928: 20; Mack 1962: 112; Williford 1975: 168). He pointed out that Bentham was regarded
as pro-woman in the light of his critique of James Mill’s Essay on Government (1820), written in the
context of the debate leading up to the Reform Bill of 1832. Bentham fell out with James Mill in
1818, and since then had few kind words for his former associate and friend. The differences were
personal, but they cast their shadow on his assessment of Mill’s Essay (Ball 1980: 105).
Bentham, according to Ball, shelved his initial demand for enfranchisement of women and their
political representation on the grounds of principle and practice. In practical terms, as pointed out,
he realized that society was not yet receptive to his radical demand. In principle, he too believed
that the home was the natural domain for the woman. Her nature was so constituted as to preclude
rational political judgements and be prone to superstition. Women were subordinate to men
because they were weaker. He also granted the man the right to be the guardian of his wife’s
interests, but rejected the idea of making them absolute masters. Women, because of their weakness
or gentleness, could not be reduced to the position of slaves. He warned that at all costs the
“dangerous snare” of “absolute equality” between the sexes was to be avoided. While J.S. Mill
believed in sexual equality, Bentham did not entertain that possibility. “If on some occasions
Bentham was an ambivalent feminist, he was, on many more, an ardent anti-feminist”.
In his Autobiography (1873), J.S. Mill acknowledged the influence that Bentham had exerted on his
thinking, giving sufficient reasons for projecting Bentham as a champion of women’s causes.
Curiously, he failed to mention his subsequent rejection of women’s suffrage.
9.7 As a Humanist

Bentham was against colonialism, and argued that it was bad both for the colonizers and the
colonies. He wanted England to create a “mass of happiness” by adopting the principle of self-
government within the empire. In arguing on behalf of the colonial peoples, he was against the
prevailing view in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which differentiated between “they”
(colonized) and “us” (colonizers). He became interested in the Indian reform movement when
James Mill became an official in the English East India Company. He inspired Lord William
Bentinck, the Governor General of India in 1827, to support and initiate reforms in India. In 1793,
Bentham asked France to liberate its colonies.
Bentham, inspired by the reform proposals with regard to education, formed a committee and
drew up plans to establish a school in London patterned on the ideas suggested by Bell and
Lancaster. Bell, by training advanced students to teach younger schoolmates, hit upon an
inexpensive method of education. This was the first practicable programme for extending education
to the lower classes, and eventually abolishing illiteracy altogether. Though the idea never
concretized, it enthused Bentham to write his Christomathia, a minute compendium on education,
covering everything from a pupil’s diet to an encyclopaedic table embracing all knowledge. In
1825, James Mill established the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge with a view to
distributing cheap or free utilitarian tracts.
Bentham championed humane treatment of slaves and animals, favouring the abolition of slavery.
He was against capital punishment. In line with his conviction that happiness was the motive
force in human behaviour and action, he sketched an Encyclopaedical Tree as a master plan for all
the arts and sciences in accordance with their contribution to human happiness. He contributed
towards evolving an international language, by classifying 17 properties that were desirable in a

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