scholarly journals An “Ingenious Moralist”: Bernard Mandeville as a Precursor of Bentham

Utilitas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-349
Author(s):  
Ryu Susato
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Order ◽  
Jeremy Bentham ◽  
Bernard Mandeville ◽  
Minor Works

AbstractThis article argues that Bernard Mandeville's ideas were more likely to have influenced Jeremy Bentham's writings than previously believed. The conventional interpretation of Mandeville as a forerunner of the Hayekian “theory of spontaneous order” has obscured Mandeville and Bentham's shared emphasis on legal and interventionist solutions for the issues of prostitution and prisoners. This influence is evinced by focusing on some of Mandeville's minor works, which anticipated some of Bentham's arguments. It is unlikely that Bentham directly knew of Mandeville's minor works, but his reformist and interventionist bent was consistent and discernible in the Fable, which Jeremy Bentham read in his youth.

scholarly journals Bernard Mandeville and the doctrine of laissez-faire

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renee Prendergast
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Market ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Spontaneous Order ◽  
Market System ◽  
Public Benefits ◽  
Laissez Faire ◽  
Bernard Mandeville ◽  
Harmful Effects

The view of Mandeville as a pioneer of laissez-faire is difficult to reconcile with his repeated insistence that private vices were turned into public benefits by the 'dexterous management of the skilful politician'. Even if references to the skilful politician are regarded as shorthand for a legal and institutional framework, there remains the question of whether such a framework is a spontaneous order or the product of purposeful experiment as Mandeville thought? Mandeville warned about the harmful effects of meddling but his complaint was about the actions of fashionable do-gooders rather than government. He understood that the voluntariness of a transaction could be regarded as a defence against complaints of unfairness but he was quick to point out the limitations of voluntariness especially in the market for labour. Mandeville's objective was to teach people what they are not what they should be. He pointed to the strengths of the emerging market system but was not afraid to expose its faults.

Basic English

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James McElvenny
Keyword(s):  
George Orwell ◽  
Jeremy Bentham ◽  
International Language ◽  
Basic English

This chapter explores C. K. Ogden’s project Basic English against the background of the contemporary international language movement. An exposition of the international language movement, its political and philosophical commitments, is followed by an examination of the features of Ogden’s Basic and the rhetoric surrounding it. The connections between the theories developed in The Meaning of Meaning and Basic English are looked at in detail. The chapter closes with a discussion of the influence of Jeremy Bentham and his Panopticon on Basic, and of the reaction of George Orwell to the project, as revealed in his published writings and correspondence with Ogden, and in Newspeak, his parody of constructed languages.

Frieden durch Recht und Öffentlichkeit: Die Hoffnungen und Verwirrungen der ersten Utilitaristen

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-252
Author(s):  
Frédéric Rimoux
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Peace ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Jeremy Bentham ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
International Thought

The international thought of the early utilitarian thinkers Jeremy Bentham and James Mill remains little known and largely misunderstood. Most commentators give them a superficial appreciation or criticize their supposed naivety, in both cases mostly assuming that Mill borrowed his thoughts from Bentham's writings alone. This questionable reception overlooks some essential aspects of Bentham's and Mill's extensive reflections on war and peace, in particular their constant effort to overcome the tension between individual freedom and collective security. In reality, the fertile dialogue between the two thinkers gradually crystallized into an independent utilitarian peace theory centered on law and public opinion as instruments of an ambitious reform of international relations according to the principle of utility. They managed to elaborate a fragile synthesis between liberal principles and considerations of political realism, which grants their utilitarian peace theory a singular place in the historical efforts to systematically define the conditions of world peace.

All His Father’s Sins

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Christian Faith ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Jeremy Bentham ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Parting Ways ◽  
The Church ◽  
Critique Of Religion

This chapter explores the life and thought of John Stuart Mill’s father, James Mill. It seeks to unravel his journey from pursuing the calling of an ordained Christian minister in the Church of Scotland to parting ways with the Christian faith altogether. It will also seek to understand James Mill’s mature critique of religion, as well as that of his friend the Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the author of several works critical of traditional Christianity. The unhappy marriage of John Stuart Mill’s parents is presented as a vital background for understanding his future choices and convictions. The Christian identity of his mother and siblings are also presented.

Jeremy Bentham: An Odyssey of Ideas, 1748-1792. Mary P. Mack

1963 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-404
Author(s):  
David Spring
Keyword(s):  
Jeremy Bentham
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