Comparison of Jeremy Bentham’s and John Mill’s theories

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, were both english philosophers that were born around the same time period, Bentham in 1748, and Mill in 1806. What these two had even more in common would be the fact that they were both major benefactors of Utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham was known for a few things, he was a philosopher, an economist, a theoretical jurist, and one of the chief expounders and developers of Utilitarianism (Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Jeremy Bentham"). John Stuart Mill was also known for several things that he has done. He was an English philosopher, economist, a prominent publicist, a logician, an ethical theorist, as well as an exponent of Utilitarianism (Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "John Stuart Mill"). The idea of this essay, is to compare and contrast both Bentham’s and Mill’s theories on utilitarianism. Along with the comparison and contrast, we will be looking at the benefits, and the dangers of each theory.

Jeremy Bentham was the eldest of the two being born in 1748. He was born in London, England and at a young age began to read latin and write in both latin and greek. Benthem went to write his major published work that was entitled The Principles of Morals and Legislation in 1789 at the age of 41. In his text he illustrates how the enlightened legacy has become transformed into the nineteenth century liberalism. Adam Smith, who was an enlightenment thinker, “thought that human interests were naturally harmonious or that a stable social order could emerge from a body of self-interested individuals”(Coffin et al. 2011. 621). Unlike Smith, Bentham believed that this was actually wrong, then then he proposed the idea to embrace an organizing principle called utilitarianism. To define ...

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...hought of changing it, it was because society was asking for and criticizing some of the things that needed change. I see Mills work as more development and refining of the work of Bentham rather than a combating idea.

Works Cited

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Jeremy Bentham", accessed March 09, 2014,http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61103/Jeremy-Bentham.

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "John Stuart Mill", accessed March 09, 2014,http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/382623/John-Stuart-Mill.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/bentham/ William Sweet, St. Francis Xavier University

http://www.iep.utm.edu/milljs/#SH2d Colin Heyd, University of South Florida

U. S. A.

Bentham, Jeremy. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. 1789.

Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press, 1999.