![]() When the American colonies published their Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the British government did not issue any official response but instead secretly commissioned London lawyer and pamphleteer John Lind to publish a rebuttal. He became deeply frustrated with the complexity of English law, which he termed the "Demon of Chicane". He trained as a lawyer and, though he never practised, was called to the bar in 1769. 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 1763 and his master's degree in 1766. He had one surviving sibling, Samuel Bentham (1757–1831), with whom he was close. He learnt to play the violin, and at the age of seven Bentham would perform sonatas by Handel during dinner parties. 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. Portrait of Bentham by the studio of Thomas Frye, 1760–1762īentham was born on 15 February 1748 in Houndsditch, London, to a wealthy family that supported the Tory party. However, he played only a limited direct part in its foundation. Because of his arguments in favour of the general availability of education, he has been described as the "spiritual founder" of UCL. This was done, and the auto-icon is now on public display in the entrance of the Student Centre at University College London (UCL). On his death in 1832, Bentham left instructions for his body to be first dissected, and then to be permanently preserved as an "auto-icon" (or self-image), which would be his memorial. He "had considerable influence on the reform of prisons, schools, poor laws, law courts, and Parliament itself." Though strongly in favour of the extension of individual legal rights, he opposed the idea of natural law and natural rights (both of which are considered "divine" or "God-given" in origin), calling them "nonsense upon stilts." Bentham was also a sharp critic of legal fictions.īentham's students included his secretary and collaborator James Mill, the latter's son, John Stuart Mill, the legal philosopher John Austin and American writer and activist John Neal. He has also become known as an early advocate of animal rights. He called for the abolition of slavery, capital punishment and physical punishment, including that of children. He advocated individual and economic freedoms, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, the right to divorce, and (in an unpublished essay) the decriminalising of homosexual acts. ![]() īentham defined as the "fundamental axiom" of his philosophy the principle that "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism. ![]() Jeremy Bentham ( / ˈ b ɛ n θ ə m/ 15 February 1748 – 6 June 1832) was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |