Table Of ContentBENTHAM:
A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED
Continuum Guides for the Perplexed
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BENTHAM:
A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED
PHILIP SCHOFIELD
Continuum International Publishing Group
The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane
11 York Road Suite 704
London SE1 7NX New York NY 10038
www.continuumbooks.com
© Philip Schofield 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage
or retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-10: HB: 0-8264-9589-3
PB: 0-8264-9590-7
ISBN-13: HB: 978-0-8264-9589-1
PB: 978-0-8264-9590-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schofield, Philip.
Bentham: a guide for the perplexed / Philip Schofield.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8264-9589-1
ISBN 978-0-8264-9590-7
1. Bentham, Jeremy, 1748-1832. I. Title.
B1574.B34S36 2009
192–dc22
2008039191
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd,
Bodmin, Cornwall
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vi
Abbreviations viii
Chapter One: Who was Jeremy Bentham? 1
Chapter Two: Which Bentham? 19
Chapter Three: The Principle of Utility 44
Chapter Four: Panopticon 70
Chapter Five: Political Fallacies 94
Chapter Six: Religion and Sex 116
Chapter Seven: Torture 137
Further Reading 153
Notes 163
Index 177
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is both a challenging and an exciting time for Bentham stud-
ies. The new authoritative edition of The Collected Works of Jeremy
Bentham, which is being produced by the Bentham Project at
University College London, is providing scholars with not only bet-
ter versions of previously published texts, but also new and hith-
erto unknown texts. These texts are gradually emerging from the
Bentham Papers deposited in UCL Library and the British Library.
The result is that, until the edition is complete, all that is written
about Bentham must, to some greater or lesser degree, be regarded
as provisional. As the current General Editor of the new edition, I
am all too aware that, due to the Project’s research on the Bentham
Papers, received views about Bentham’s life and thought have often
been shown to be inaccurate or in need of modification. The pre-
sent book draws on some of the latest work being undertaken at the
Bentham Project, but between sending this book to the press and its
publication, there are sure to be new discoveries!
I am grateful to my colleagues at the Bentham Project – Catherine
Fuller, Catherine Pease-Watkin, Irena Nicoll, Oliver Harris and
Michael Quinn – for their help, advice, support and encouragement.
I am especially grateful to Michael Quinn and Catherine Fuller for
reading and commenting on several of the chapters in this book.
I should add that a great deal of what is said in Chapter Four in
relation to the poor laws draws on numerous conversations with
Michael Quinn, as he attempted to explain to me just what it was
that Bentham was trying to do with his ‘census’ of the pauper popu-
lation. Thanks are also due to Kate Barber, the Project’s administra-
tor, who has supported my work in all sorts of ways. I am grateful to
Gill Furlong and Susan Stead and their colleagues at UCL Library
vi
Acknowledgements
who look after the Bentham Papers. Finally, I would like to thank
the worldwide community of Bentham scholars (a small but select
group of right-minded persons!) who help to make the study of
Bentham so stimulating, and (dare I say it) pleasurable.
In the ‘Advertisement’ to A View of the Hard-Labour Bill, pub-
lished in 1778, Bentham noted: ‘In regard to sex, I make, in general,
no separate mention of the female; that being understood (unless
where the contrary is specified) to be included under the expression
used to denote the male.’ I have followed Bentham’s policy in the
following pages. I hope that females everywhere – and especially my
wife Kathryn and daughters Rebecca and Abigail – will be generous
enough to forgive me.
I would like to dedicate this book to the students who have, over
the years, endured my teaching on UCL’s LLM and MA course on
Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarian Tradition.
Philip Schofield
UCL, August 2008
vii
ABBREVIATIONS
BL Add. MS British Library Additional Manuscript.
Bowring Bentham, J. (1843), The Works of Jeremy Bentham.
J. Bowring (ed.), 11 vols, Edinburgh: William Tait.
IPML Bentham, J. (1970), An Introduction to the Principles
of Morals and Legislation. J. H. Burns and H. L. A.
Hart (eds), London: Athlone Press.
UC University College London Library, Bentham
Papers. (Roman numerals refer to the boxes in
which the papers are placed, and Arabic to the
folios within each box.)
viii
CHAPTER ONE
WHO WAS JEREMY BENTHAM?
BIRTH, FAMILY AND EDUCATION
Jeremy Bentham was born in Houndsditch, London on 15 February
1748.1 He was the eldest son of Alicia Whitehorn, née Grove, who on
3 October 1745 had entered into her second marriage with Jeremiah
Bentham, a successful practitioner in the Court of Chancery, with
wealthy and important clients in the City of London, but who seems
to have made most of his money through property speculation.2 Six
further children were born, of whom only the youngest, Samuel,
born in 1757, survived beyond infancy. Death was never far away,
and on 6 January 1759, when Jeremy was 10 years old, he lost his
mother. Jeremy himself was not expected to survive infancy, though
by 1755 he was considered robust enough to go to Westminster
School. His grandmothers were the most important influences in his
early childhood, and he spent the school vacations at their houses
in Barking, Essex and at Browning Hill in Baughurst, Hampshire.
They were both daughters of clergymen, and raised their grandson to
be a devout member of the Church of England. They taught him the
Catechism, and he attended their daily prayers.3 There was, however,
another early influence, which may have given him a rather different
perspective on life, and that was John Mulford, his mother’s cousin.
According to Bentham’s later recollection, Mulford was ‘a sort of
rake’, of an engaging, lively and practical disposition, who seems to
have been very fond of young Jeremy. It may have been Mulford who
encouraged Bentham’s interest in botany, chemistry and medicine –
interests he retained throughout life.4 Bentham was, moreover, a
voracious reader – despite his parents’ view ‘that books of amuse-
ment were unfit for children’5 he managed to read Swift’s Gulliver’s
1
