Jeremy Bentham was born on February 15th, 1748 in Houndsditch, London and died June 6th 1832. Bentham was a British theorist, jurist, and social activist. Bentham was the founder of modern utilitarianism. Bentham became a leading philosopher in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical who influenced the progress of well-being. He was an advocate to the people regarding economic liberty, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, decriminalization of homosexual activities, separation of church and state and right to divorce. He made an effort to abolish the death penalty, to abolish slavery and to abolish physical punishment that included children. In his early years he was an advocator for animal rights.
Bentham attended Westminster School in 1760, at age 12 his father sent him to The Queen's College, Oxford, he completed his Bachelor's degree in 1763 and Master’s degree in 1766. He was qualified as a lawyer but never practiced law. When the American colonies published their Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the British government present any response, however, they secretly commissioned London lawyer John Lind to publish a rebuttal. The 130 page rebuttal was spread in the colonies and contained an essay titled "Short Review of the Declaration" written by Jeremy Bentham, a friend of Lind's, the rebuttal criticized and ridiculed the Americans' political beliefs.
Bentham is particularly noted for his theories of punishment. He claimed that all punishment required justification, he believed that all punishment is integrally evil. Bentham also believed that seeing justice done is more important than justice actually being done. Bentham designed some harsh ideas of punishment, such as the belief that in ce...
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...n beings cherish their lives and try to make the most of it, taking that away from a person is the worst thing anyone can do. The fact that these three were released after six months of imprisonment is very disrespectful to the family and the community. No justice was done for Parker, it was more like a slap on the hand, these men got away with murder and no one tried enough to give them what they deserved.
Jeremy Bentham progression of importance of punishment as a deterrence and the theory of utility and rationality. Though individuals have disapproved his methods, writing ability and some of his theories, Jeremy Bentham became well-known for his development of the utilitarian way of looking at society and the many improvements he made on the criminal justice system and legislation for the improvement of England in the 18th and 19th century and the United States.
Capital punishment in the essays by George Orwell, H.L. Mencken, and Norman Mailer was a necessary evil to deter crime. These authors incorporated the use of alcohol or drugs as mind-altering chemicals to relieve the pressures of the characters involved in death due to capital punishment. Chemicals such as drugs and alcohol can be used for the pleasure of relieving stress, a means to forget, or a way to subdue personal beliefs as the authors have illustrated.
John Locke (1632–1704) was an English philosopher who is often credited with being the originator of liberalism. Locke’s personal life was one of accomplishment and success. He graduated from Oxford in 1656, taught philosophy, and published works on philosophy, politics, religion, and education.
Bentham's theory calls for "ultra-democracy", he believes that each individual has the right to decide what the public interests are. He insists that the interest of the community is nothing than the sum of the interests of several members who compose it. And to be able to understand any individual's interest, you should understand his preferences and the pleasure he seeks, which could be achieved through maximizing the preferences of the greater numbers. Bentham was objected to the "sinister interest" of the ruling elite, because he has a great believe that they were bound to pursue their own interest, which in turn the interest of the minority and could be conflicted to the rest of the society's interests. Therefore, the only remedy for this evil is to allow each person a share in choosing who will represent his or her interests in the parliament.
Jeremy Bentham spent most of his life focused on what he saw as failings in the justice system. He felt that there were “irrational and chaotic foundations” in the leadership of his time (Lawhead, p465). Bentham did not believe that morality was ingrained in every person from birth, or that moral laws were the same for everyone – and since there was no scientific proof of these things, things that the former government had come to regard as fact, Bentham dismissed them. What Bentham did believe was that pleasure and pain were experienced by each and every person, even if the sources were different. He also believed that achieving this pleasure was the end goal of every person. Even when a person does something that takes the pleasure of others into account, ultimately it is in order to indirectly promote their own pleasure. Therefore he came up with a method for calculating the amount of pain and pleasure that a situation created. Then, by adding up these amounts and determining which course of action provided the most pleasure, for all in the situation, he determi...
"Today's system, where imprisonment is a common penalty for most crimes, is a historical newcomer." Many crimes during 1718 and 1776 were punishable by death. This was usually done by hanging, sometimes by stoning, breaking on the rack and burning at the stake. Towards the end of the 1700's people realized that cruel punishment did little to reduce crime and their society was changing the population grew and people started to move around more frequently. There had to be a search for new punishments. "New punishments were to rely heavily on new ideas imported from Europe in the writing of such social thinkers of the Enlightenment as the baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, Thomas Pain and Cesare Beccaria". These thinkers came to believe that criminals could be rehabilitated."
... on trial killed a loved, anybody would want that person in prison. Even though it hurts to see a family member suffer people have to do the right thing.
All that remains, Bentham supposed, is to consider the extent of this pleasure, since the happiness of the community as a whole is nothing other than the sum of individual human interests. The principle of utility, then, defines the meaning of moral obligation by reference to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people who are affected by performance of an action. Similarly, Bentham supposed that social policies are properly evaluated in light of their effect on the general well-being of the populations they involve. Punishing criminals is an effective way of deterring crime precisely because it pointedly alters the likely outcome of their actions, attaching the likelihood of future pain in order to outweigh the apparent gain of committing the crime. Thus, punishment must "fit" the crime by changing the likely perception of the value of committing it.
... of the death penalty. You see the philological twists and turns someone goes through awaiting death and get a real sense of what it feels to be in that situation. Whether the death penalty is wrong, or right, these influential authors showed us the true nature of capital punishment.
Locke believes that everyone is born as a blank slate. According to Locke there is no innate human nature but human nature is something we create. And because we are born as an equal blank slate all men have the opportunity to create human nature therefore Locke believed all men are created equal. Unlike Bentham Locke believed that government needed to take a step back and allow for each individual to have the right to three things: life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The Governments role should not be in dictating people what to do but to allow individuals to their three
Although Bentham and Mill were both undoubtedly utilitarian, there are some crucial topics they disagreed on. Jeremy Bentham is an act-utilitarianism, meaning he believes that an act is right if and only if it leads to greater utility (Johnson, “Consequentialism” 4). While Mill is a rule-utilitarianism—he believes that an action is right if and only if it conforms to a general rule which, if followed consistently, leads to greater utility (Johnson, “Consequentialism” 4). More simplistically, it seems as though Bentham would judge an actions morality based on the results of said action, whereas Mill would judge the morality of an action based on the intentions and reasoning for deciding upon such
Herbert Morris and Jean Hampton both view punishment as important to a healthy society. However, their views on what kind of role does punishment plays in a healthy society are vastly different. Morris believes that when one commits a crime they “owe a debt to the society and the person they wronged” and, therefore the punishment of that person is retributive, and a right for those who committed this wrong (270). Hampton, on the other hand, believes that punishment is a good for those who have strayed in the path of being morally right. Out of the two views presented, I believe that Hampton view is more plausible, and rightly places punishment as a constructive good that is better suited for society than Morris’s view.
Sociological theories help explain deviance and methods to prevent it, such as the strain theory by Merton, control theory, and the differential association theory. In earlier times, people found guilty of crimes were executed right after the promulgation of sentence since the state did not want to incur added costs of detention nor risk the possibility of escape but enlightened thinking led to creation of prisons to prevent torture or execution to be spectacles. Incarceration was a solution to achieve retribution, deterrence, incapacitation and (sometimes) rehabilitation.
"In 1991, a young mother was rendered helpless and made to watch as her baby was executed. The mother was then mutilated and killed. The killer should not lie in some prison with three meals a day, clean sheets, cable TV, family visits and endless appeals. For justice to prevail, some killers just need to die." (Macy). This poor mother watched her child get killed in front of her eyes only to get murdered afterwards and never received the proper justice she deserved. The murderer who committed this heinous felony only got time in prison. Is it not fair that this man should have received the death penalty after committing such a brutal murder? He murdered this poor mother and child and received an unfair punishment. If he were to have received the death penalty if would have done some just to the family. There is absolutely no way for the mother and child to receive full proper justice, but if the convict had gotten the death penalty it would be a step in the right direction. If someone such as a family member or a person who you are close with was to be murdered, would it not be fair for the crook who murdered them to receive the death penalty? It is only moral for that delinquent to suffer the same fate as
Let’s talk about the philosopher himself to understand his philosophy even better. John Stuart Mills was born in London on May 20, 1806 and died May 8, 1873 in Avignon, France, and was the eldest son to James Mill and Harriet Barrow. Mills father was a great influence in his life and his philosophies, and also mentored him while doing his own work. James Mills and Jeremy Bentham became good aquatints, they both shared similar philosophical ideas, and Bentham helped Mills with financial assistance when Mills was trying to establish himself. The connection between James Mill and Jeremey Bentham was a big influence on John Stuart Mills, and which also caused him to create his own philosophy based upon Bentham’s Utilitarianism.
It also advocated for the abolition of the death penalty. Discretion used by judges was unlimited, which saw extremely inconsistent and harsh penalties applied to offenders, with disadvantaged offenders being given much harsher penalties than those offenders with a higher social status (Monachesi, 1955). The Classical School of Criminology worked off four main principles: firstly, that individuals act according to their rationality and their own free will, secondly, individuals will weigh up the benefits of committing the crime and compare the benefits to the consequences if they are caught, thirdly, the severity of the punishment must be tied closely with the severity of the crime to act as a deterrent to others and finally, the punishment must be carried out swiftly in an attempt to deter and reduce further crime (Jenkins,