Jeremy Bentham and the Principle of Utility

Jeremy Bentham, a London-trained lawyer, wanted to rebuild law on a single rational principle: utility. In A Fragment on Government (1776) he declared that 'it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong'. In An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (printed 1780, published 1789) he argued that pleasure and pain govern human action and proposed a 'felicific calculus' to measure the consequences of laws.

On this basis he attacked traditions that served no useful purpose, criticized harsh punishments and argued for legal codification and, in private writings, against punishing same-sex relations. He dismissed natural rights as 'nonsense upon stilts', preferring to judge laws by their effects. His design for a prison, the Panopticon, in which a central inspector could watch every cell, aimed at efficient reform.

Critics have argued that utilitarianism can justify sacrificing individuals for the majority, and Foucault made the Panopticon a symbol of surveillance.