Rhetorical Analysis Of Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham was born on February 15, 1748 in Houndsditch, London. He was raised in a period of social, economic, and political prosperity that impacted his take on society. Being the son and grandson of attorneys, he was influenced to practice law in his family. By age 12, Bentham attended Queen’s College, Oxford, pursued law and graduated four years later. However, he soon discovered that he had a real passion for writing and on most days, he spent eight to twelve hours devoted to writing. Bentham composed an essay that criticized and ridiculed America’s take on political philosophy after the Declaration of Independence was published in 1776. Although he gained many admirers over the years, most people still weren’t accepting of the ideas
As a result, three general characteristics were constituted as the basics of his philosophy: the greatest happiness principle, universal egoism and the artificial identification of one’s interests with those of others. The first discusses about producing the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Therefore, the utility principle is completely dependent on the amount of happiness brought about. It can be inferred that actions which don’t produce a content amount of happiness is morally
He uses many anaphoras throughout the preface to serve as background information and bring attention upon it. Rhetorical questions are present as well to make the audience think about what he’s saying. When Bentham writes that, “By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness, (all this in or to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappi- ness to the party whose interest is considered.” He is basically saying do whatever means necessary to make the most out of it and if it applies to the individual, it only needs to benefit the individual but if it is referring to the community, the community must benefit as a whole. One should feel pleasure but avoid pain since it represents the evil in one’s life. The ultimate goal of one’s life is to reach the climax of happiness because that marks the end of the path. The author appeals to all three devices: ethos, logos and pathos because it is all incorporated to his writings. He was well-educated at a top school which earns him credibility and he appeals to the reader’s emotions when he makes comparisons and analogies to let the readers relate to him and in a sense feel what he’s feeling. Logos is present because the argument makes sense and it is not a fallacy. These are