“The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.”
Jeremy Bentham · Utilitarianism
ethicsjusticehappiness
Paraphrase or translation
Philosopher
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Jeremy Bentham
1748–1832 · Utilitarianism · Enlightenment
Jeremy Bentham, born in 1748, died in 1832, judged laws and morals by their tendency to increase happiness and lessen pain. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789, opens by placing mankind under two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure, and then defines utility as the tendency to augment or diminish happiness. The famous formula, the greatest happiness of the greatest number, is a banner he adopted.
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Francis Hutcheson had written a close version in 1725, and saying so does not make Bentham a cheap plagiarist. It makes the history accurate. He wanted a calculus of intensity, duration, certainty, nearness, fecundity, purity, and extent. In Anarchical Fallacies he called natural rights simple nonsense, and natural imprescriptible rights nonsense upon stilts. The phrase is genuinely his.
He is not only a slogan. He is a drafter of codes, a critic of fictions in law, and a figure Mill both inherited and revised, especially on the quality of pleasures. The English of the major books is his.
Start here
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, chapter 1
The two masters and the definition of utility are his own English. The famous banner is easier to misunderstand without them.
Quotations
“Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense — nonsense upon stilts.”
Jeremy Bentham · Utilitarianism
justicepowersociety
Well attested
“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.”
Jeremy Bentham · Utilitarianism
ethicshappinessmind
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“The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”
Jeremy Bentham · Utilitarianism
ethicsjustice
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“The interest of the community then is, what?—the sum of the interests of the several members who compose it.”
Jeremy Bentham · Utilitarianism
ethicssocietyjustice
Well attested
Key ideas
Two masters
Pain and pleasure govern both what people do and the standard of what they ought to do, on his opening claim.
Utility
Approve or disapprove by the tendency to augment or diminish the happiness of those whose interest is in question.
Nonsense upon stilts
A right without a law that creates a duty is, for him, a fiction wearing the costume of thunder.
Major works
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789)
Chapter 1 is the two masters and the principle of utility.
A Fragment on Government (1776)
An earlier attack on Blackstone and a statement of utility in politics.
Anarchical Fallacies (written 1796, published 1816)
The attack on the French Declaration. Nonsense upon stilts is his phrase.
Influences
- David Hume
- John Locke
- Thomas Hobbes
- Helvetius
Influenced
- John Stuart Mill
- John Austin
Common misreadings
- He invented the greatest-happiness formula from nothing. Hutcheson is earlier.
- Nonsense upon stilts is a fake quotation, or a sneer with no jurisprudence attached.
Famous lines Jeremy Bentham never said
None of the lines this library files for Jeremy Bentham is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, chapter 1 The two masters and the definition of utility are his own English. The famous banner is easier to misunderstand without them.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Jeremy Bentham that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.” (A common statement of Bentham's principle; compare A Fragment on Government (1776) and the opening of An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), Paraphrase or translation).
What is the most misquoted line?
None of the lines this library files for Jeremy Bentham is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
Two masters: Pain and pleasure govern both what people do and the standard of what they ought to do, on his opening claim.