MPT L7: JEREMY BENTHAM

He is the earliest and chief expounder of Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham

Bentham gained a reputation for being able to write verses in which languages?

Greek and Latin

Bentham detected fallacies from the lectures of whom?

Sir William Blackstone

Bentham’s father wanted his son to become what?

Lord Chancellor

Why did Bentham criticized Sir William Blackstone in his first book “A Fragment on Government”?

Because Blackstone opposed reform

Did Bentham support philosophical radicalism (a movement advocating significant political and social reforms) ?

yes

Who read Bentham’s first book and later asked to summon its author?

Lord Shelburne

Did Bentham wrote a book that was printed in French?

yes (it was published by his admirer)

Bentham had a brother who worked as an engineer in the Russian armed forces. His name was?

Samuel Bentham

Although Bentham was influenced by the economist Adam Smith in his work “Defence of Usury”. Why did Bentham criticized Smith?

Smith did not fully applied his own economic principles

Did Bentham believe that there should be no restrictions to the interest placed in lending money?

yes

Bentham’s later works on political economy followed which principle?

laissez-faire (a policy of minimum governmental interference in the economic affairs of individuals and society)

After his return to England, what career did Bentham aimed to pursue?

politics (it ended in disappointment)

Bentham defines this principle as “that property in any object whereby in tends to produce pleasure, good or happiness, or to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered”

utility

According to Bentham, man is governed by two sovereign motives which are?

pleasure and pain

According to Bentham, what is the goal of all legislation?

the greatest happiness of the greatest number

From the principle of utility, Bentham concludes that since all punishment involves pain and is therefore evil. When should punishment only be used?

to prevent even greater harm or evil

In 1792, Bentham was made a ____ citizen

French

Bentham’s chief preoccupations was the codification of law and it was his ambition to be allowed to?

write a code of laws for his own country or some foreign one

As a pioneer of prison reform, Bentham presented a “model prison” which he called?

the Panopticon

Bentham’s proposal for his model prison, Panopticon, eventually came to nothing. He was instead provided a compensation of how much?

£23,000

To spread the principles of philosophical radicalism, Bentham helped to establish what?

Westminster Review

Did Bentham advocated for annual elections, equal electoral districts, a wide suffrage including women, and the secret ballot?

yes

Did Bentham support women’s participation in the government and the reform of marriage law to allow greater freedom to divorce?

yes

Did Bentham wished that his remains be preserved and be displayed?

yes

Was Bentham criticized to have an oversimplified and ambiguous concept of ethics?

yes

Bentham presented a method for calculating amounts of happiness which he called?

felicific calculus

Who was Bentham’s Victorian editor who cut what was both original and well argued on Bentham’s work?

Sir John Bowring

Which kind of democracy did Bentham supported?

representative democracy

Bentham believed that without these reforms, Britain risked what?
(1) eliminate royal patronage

(2) expand voting rights

(3) annual elections by secret ballot

(4) election of intellectually qualified and independent members of Parliament with a system of fines to ensure regular attendance

(5) regular and accurate publication of parliamentary debates

revolution

Was Bentham recognized as the foremost philosophical voice of political radicalism of his time?

yes

Bentham created a utilitarian code of law which he called?

pannomion

Was Bentham also influenced by progressive elements of the Enlightenment similar to Bacon, Locke, Hume, and other French philosophers?

yes

Influenced by the empiricism of Bacon and Locke, Bentham believed that all knowledge is derived from?

sensation

According to Bentham, “what the physician is to the natural body, the legislator is to the _____”

political

According to Bentham, “legislation is the art of _____ exercised upon a grand scale”

medicine

Did Bentham rejected all forms of idealism in philosophy?

yes

Bentham insisted that all matter, including pains and pleasures we experience is quantifiable by _____ terms

mathematical

Did Bentham wanted to mirror the progress of physical sciences in moral philosophy?

yes

Bentham used this technique to clarify fictitious entities

paraphrasis

Arrange the following subordinate ends of civil law in order of priority according to Bentham

abundance, security, equality, subsistence

security, subsistence, abundance, equality

According to Bentham, when there is overall abundance, but some lack the means of subsistence, legislative intervention can follow which principle?

disappointment-prevention principle

Which theory of Bentham supports policies of wealth equalization by suggesting that

“a reduction in wealth causes less pain for a rich person than for a poor person, while increases in wealth bring more happiness to a poor person than to a rich one”

diminishing marginal equality

 According to Bentham, what is the key to achieving more equal property distribution?

economic abundance

According to Bentham, when can issues become an “Agenda” for government intervention?

when essential goods become too expensive for many

According to Bentham, what is the primary and secondary focus of utilitarian penal law?

primary: deterrence

secondary: disablement, moral reformation, and compensation

According to Bentham, the effectiveness of utilitarian penal law depends on 2 factors which are?

(1) crimes must be classified based on the harm caused

(2) punishments must be proportional to the crime

Did Bentham rejected the criminalization of consensual sexual acts?

yes (because it failed to satisfy the first criterion of utilitarian penal law)

To guide the legislator in proportioning punishments to offences, Bentham stipulated what?

13 rules or “canons”

Why did Bentham opposed the death penalty as form of deterrent?

(1) it was unfair to the poor

(2) it was irreversible in cases of juridical error

Before Bentham completely rejected death penalty as he believed no crime justified it. He initially saw exceptions for severe cases like?

(1) aggravated murder

(2) treason

Much of Bentham's recommendations for administrative and political institutions is governed by which principle?

clue: it is designed to ensure that the interests of those with power would be reconciled with the public interest, the interest of the governed

interest-junction-prescribing principle

To ensure transparency and accountability in administrations, Bentham introduced an open court of public opinion founded on the freedom of the press and government actions are open to public scrutiny. This was called?

public opinion tribunal

According to Bentham, what is the goal of the constitution?

the greatest happiness of the greatest number

Did Bentham believed that those who hold “operative” power in government, administration, and judiciary are motivated by personal interest?

yes

According to Bentham, under representative democracy, who are the representatives of the “constitutive power” of the people?

members of the legislature

On Bentham’s plan of parliamentary reform, he emphasized that officials must possess three types of aptitude which are?

(1) moral

(2) intellectual

(3) active

WHAT KIND OF APTITUDE IS DESCRIBED BELOW ACCORDING TO BENTHAM:

The disposition to promote the greatest happiness

moral aptitude

WHAT KIND OF APTITUDE IS DESCRIBED BELOW ACCORDING TO BENTHAM:

Divided into scientific aptitude or knowledge, and judicial aptitude or judgement

intellectual aptitude

WHAT KIND OF APTITUDE IS DESCRIBED BELOW ACCORDING TO BENTHAM:

The conscientious performance of assigned responsibilities

active aptitude

According to Bentham, intellectual and active aptitude should be assessed through?

an examination process

Did Bentham reject the Hobbesian idea of sovereignty where the sovereign is a single and unified supreme power?

yes (Bentham favored legal limitation and division of sovereign power)

Bentham used the term “sovereignty” to both refer to?

(1) legal sovereignty “power to legislate”

(2) political/popular sovereignty “power of the people to limit or control government and public officials”

According to Bentham, all law emanates from the will of?

the sovereign (the will of the sovereign cannot be illegal)

According to Bentham, all political authority, no matter what form, is limited by?

ability to compel obedience from the people

According to Bentham, what amounts to a permanent constitutional check on the authority of the sovereign?

the will of the people to disobey

According to Bentham, legislature may be “supreme“ but it can never be?

absolute and unlimited