Jeremy Bentham - An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and foundational definitions from Chapters I, IV, and VII of Jeremy Bentham's 'An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation'.

Sovereign Masters

Pain and pleasure, the two forces under whose governance Nature has placed mankind to point out what we ought to do and determine what we shall do.

Principle of Utility

The principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question.

Utility

That property in any object whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness, or to prevent mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered.

Community

A fictitious body, composed of the individual persons who are considered as constituting as it were its members.

Interest of the Community

The sum of the interests of the several members who compose it.

Interest of an Individual

That which tends to add to the sum total of an individual's pleasures, or to diminish the sum total of his pains.

Law or Dictate of Utility

A kind of law or dictate imagined for the purposes of discourse when an action or measure of government is conceived to be conformable to the principle of utility.

Partisan of the Principle of Utility

A person whose approbation or disapprobation annexed to any action or measure is determined by and proportioned to its tendency to augment or diminish the happiness of the community.

Fecundity

The chance a pleasure or pain has of being followed by sensations of the same kind: pleasures, if it be a pleasure; pains, if it be a pain.

Purity

The chance a pleasure or pain has of not being followed by sensations of the opposite kind: pains, if it be a pleasure; pleasures, if it be a pain.

Extent

The number of persons to whom a pleasure or pain extends, or who are affected by it.

Material Consequences

Consequences of an act that either consist of pain or pleasure, or have an influence in the production of pain or pleasure.

Consciousness

The state of the perceptive faculty when the party believes precisely those circumstances, and no others, to subsist, which really do subsist.

Unconsciousness

The state of the perceptive faculty when the party fails of perceiving certain circumstances to subsist, which, however, do subsist.

False Consciousness

The state of the perceptive faculty when the party believes or imagines certain circumstances to subsist, which in truth do not subsist.

Positive Acts

Acts that consist in motion or exertion, also styled acts of commission.

Negative Acts

Acts that consist in keeping at rest, or forbearing to move or exert oneself, also styled acts of omission or forbearance.

External Acts

Corporal acts, or acts of the body.

Internal Acts

Mental acts, or acts of the mind.

Acts of Discourse

External acts which serve to express the existence of internal ones, such as speaking, writing, or making signs.

Transitive Acts

Acts in which motion is communicated from the person of the agent to some foreign body on which the effects are considered material.

Intransitive Acts

Acts in which motion is communicated to no other body on which the effects are material than some part of the same person in whom it originated.

Transient Act

An act that is brief or temporary, such as to strike or to buy.

Continued Act

An act in which there are no intervals filled up by acts of different natures, such as to lean or to keep in one's possession.

Repetition of Acts

A series of acts separated by intervals filled up by acts of different natures.

Habit (or Practice)

A repetition of acts separated by long-continued intervals, occupying a considerable space of time.

Simple Acts

Acts consisting each of a single simple exertion or rest, such as the act of striking, leaning, or drinking.

Complex Acts

Acts consisting each of a multitude of simple acts that derive unity from a relation to some common design or end.

Material Circumstances

Circumstances that bear a visible relation in point of causality to the consequences of an act.

Immaterial Circumstances

Circumstances that bear no visible relation in point of causality to the consequences of an act.

Criminative Circumstances

Circumstances that enter into the essence of an offense, contribute by conjunct influence to its consequences, and distinguish it by name.

Exculpative or Extenuative Circumstances

Additional circumstances entering into combination with an act and criminative circumstances that produce additional consequences of a beneficial kind.

Aggravative Circumstances

Additional circumstances entering into combination with an act and criminative circumstances that produce additional consequences of a mischievous kind.

Evidentiary Circumstances

Circumstances connected with the consequences of an offense that bear a material relation in the way of evidence, serving as proofs or indications.