Jeremy Bentham, Philosopher


He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks; it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct; if wrong, as a beacon to warn.

In the darkness of secrecy, sinister and evil in every shape shall have full swing. Only in proportion as publicity has place can any of the checks applicable to judicial injustice operate. Where there is no publicity, there is no justice. Publicity is the very soul of justice. It is the keenest spur to exertion and the surest of all guards against improbity. It keeps the judge himself while trying under trial.

Jeremy Bentham

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Internet Resources

Includes links to full-text versions of many of Bentham's writings.
The cabinet contains Bentham's preserved skeleton, dressed in his own clothes, and surmounted by a wax head. Bentham requested that his body be preserved in this way in his will made shortly before his death on 6 June 1832.
University College, London
Bentham also suggested a procedure to mechanically estimate the moral status of any action, which he called the felicific calculus.
Wikipedia
He formulated the principle of utility, which approves of an action in so far as an action has an overall tendency to promote the greatest amount of happiness.
Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy
Bentham advocates the decriminalization of' sodomy, which in his day was punished by hanging. He argues that homosexual acts do not 'weaken' men, or threaten population or marriage, and documents their prevalence in ancient Greece and Rome.
Jeremy Bentham

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