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JEREM BENTHAM (1748-1832) : There Are Two Doctrines of Bentham

Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher and social reformer known for developing the theory of utilitarianism. He believed that morality and law should aim to provide the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Bentham proposed that the morality of actions should be determined by their consequences and whether they increase or decrease happiness, as measured by a "hedonic calculus" considering factors like intensity, duration, and likelihood. His theory of utilitarianism and criticism of natural rights had a significant influence on legal and social reform.

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124 views

JEREM BENTHAM (1748-1832) : There Are Two Doctrines of Bentham

Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher and social reformer known for developing the theory of utilitarianism. He believed that morality and law should aim to provide the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Bentham proposed that the morality of actions should be determined by their consequences and whether they increase or decrease happiness, as measured by a "hedonic calculus" considering factors like intensity, duration, and likelihood. His theory of utilitarianism and criticism of natural rights had a significant influence on legal and social reform.

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raj
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Before going towards the Bentham Theory firstly read the life

achievements of the Jeremy Bentham

JEREM BENTHAM(1748-1832)

 One of the earliest Positivist and consider to be founder of


positivism.
 English Utilitarian philosopher and Social reformer.
 Popularly known for his theory of “utilitarianism” also called as
“doctrine of hedonism”.
 He expounded principle of utility in his “Limits of Jurisprudence
Defined” published in 1945.
 He did not think morality as an essential attribute of law and was of
the view that law is in need of revision.
 Rejected the notion of reason to decide the morality of action.
 Principle of antipathy and sympathy is not sufficient to decided
morality of action.
 Principle of utility is a morally right principle of action of every
situation.
 Defined a hedonistic method to calculate the moral rightness or
wrongness of an action, which is known as hedonistic calculus.
 Bentham’s view about law were popularized by his disciple John
Austin.

There Are Two Doctrines of Bentham


PSYCHOLOGICAL HEDONISM

 Human actions are motivated by the desire to enjoy pleasure or


prevent pain.
 Enjoyment of pleasure or prevent pain is the only rational aim of
human action.

ETHICAL HEDONISM
 Wrongness or rightness of an action is determined by whether the
action create happiness or unhappiness.
 If an action conforms to principle of utility (action tends to
promote happiness or prevent unhappiness) then the action is
morally right or at least not morally wrong.
 That is an action should have an overall tendency to promote the
greatest amount of happiness.
 Happiness is identified with predominance of pleasure and absence
of pain.

CLASSIFICATION OF PLEASURE & PAIN

 Pleasure and Pain may be caused by:


 Various kinds of sensation, Thoughts, Emotions, Memories,
Expectations and Association.
 Pleasure may be caused by the relief of pain and satisfaction of
desire.
 Pain may be caused by cessation of pleasure and frustration of
desire.
 According to Bentham, “nature has placed mankind under
governance of two sovereign masters i.e., pleasure and pain”. We
owe them all our ideas; we refer to them all our judgments and all
the determination of life.

TYPES OF SANCTION

 Bentham calls the various kinds of pleasure and pain as sanctions


and divides them into four categories. These are:-
 Physical Sanction: Pain and pleasure arise due to normal and
natural or ordinary course of nature.
 Political Sanction: Pain and pleasure arise due to an action of the
sovereign authority or government.
 Moral Sanction: Pain and pleasure is attachment to an action by
the will of the individual who are not in authority.
 Religious Sanction: Pain and pleasure is attached to an action
caused by the supernatural power or a superior invisible being.

THEORY OF UTILITARIANISM
 More emphasis was given to “individualism”.
 He discussed the principle in “introduction to Principles of Morals
and Legislation”
 Right aim of legislation is carrying out the principle of utility,
which means that law shall prevent evil and produce good.
 Defined utility as “the property or tendency of a thing to prevent
some evil or procure some good.”
 Proper end of every law is the promotion of “greatest happiness in
greatest number”.
 Function of law is to unfetter the individual from the bondage.
 Once individual is free, he will be able to care about his future.
 He supported the principle of “laissez faire” state.
 The task of the government is to promote happiness of society by
furthering enjoyment of pleasure and affording security against
pain.
 His theory proposed two premises:
 Consequentialism: It means morality is concerned with the effects
of actions on the happiness of individual.
 Maximization of happiness: It means greatest happiness in
greatest number
 Bentham desired to ensure happiness of the community by
attaining four major goals, namely:-
 Subsistence, Abundance , Equality and Security to the citizens
 Therefore, the function of the law must be to meet these ends.
 Bentham also talks about the utility as a function of usefulness i.e,
how useful a product is depends upon out will to obtain it.
 Pleasure and pain are the ultimate standards on which a law should
be judged.
 Thus, “greatest happiness principle” or the principle of utility
forms the gist of Bentham’s thought.

SEVEN DIMENSTIONS OF PLEASURE AND PAIN

 Pleasure and pain can be scientifically calculated according to the


following seven criteria of the Hedonistic Calculus. These are:
 Intensity or how intense is it, Duration or how long it lasts,
Certainty or how probable it is, Propinquity or how soon will the
expected effects will become evident, Fecundity or the probability
of leading to further pleasure, Purity or how free from pain it is,
and Extent or how widely it covers.
 Bentham argues that individual pursuit may lead to greatest pain
and less pleasure to society and may not be right.
 Duty to legislation is to maintain society with optimum pleasure
and minimum degree of pain.

BENTHAM AND NATURAL RIGHTS

 According to Bentham, natural rights are simple non-sense.


 He calls natural law as “mock-law”, “sham law” or “quasi law”.
 He dethroned the natural form its pedestal & replaced it by a
logical scientific working principle of utility.
 Natural rights are ambiguous Bentham says, because it suggests
that there are general rights i.e, rights over no specific object.
 This means that one could have a claim on whatever one chooses.
 He also condemned the belief in natural rights on the grounds that
it inspired violence and bloodshed as seen in French Revolution.
 In his view, all rights are the creation of law and there is no right
before the government.
 He co-related his theory with human nature and his views are based
on practical approach and real sense of life.

CRITICISM AGAINST BENTHAM

 According to Freidmann, it suffers mainly from two weaknesses,


 It is an effort to blend materialism with idealism
 His story fails to balance individual interests with the interests of
the community.
 Pleasure and pain cannot be the final test of the adequacy of law.
Every act which gives pleasure cannot be said to be good
 Law should be made exclusively by legislation which was
supposed to remove any barrier to individual freedom but in later
times, legislation was used to restrict individual’s freedom in
economic matters.
 The ethics of principle of greatest happiness of greatest number is
neither universally accepted nor derived as a logical necessity.
CONCLUSION

 Bentham was the real originator of analytical jurisprudence.


 He explained the nature of law and its purpose through tool of
analysis.
 He mainly relied on the doctrine of utility to which law ought to
conform.
 Relied on the doctrine of utility to measure the efficacy of law.
 He invented Expository Jurisprudence which mainly concerned
with law as it is without regard to its moral or immoral character.
 He insisted on the separation of law from morality.
 According to G.W. Paton, Bentham’s brilliant insight in human
behaviour and shape of model law was the greatest contribution to
European Jurisprudence.

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