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Jeremy Bentham's Preserved Head


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Jeremy Bentham's Preserved Head

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was an English jurist, political reformer, and philosopher who was best known for his contribution to modern utilitarianism. He defined the idea of "interest" in terms of the avoidance of pains and acquisition of pleasures, claiming that all human actions are governed by pain and pleasure. And since each individual's happiness consists in the aggregate balance of pleasures over pains, Bentham believed that the ultimate objective of a legislator is to maximize total utility. In Bentham’s theory the utility of an act is independent of its motive--it is solely determined by the consequences of the act (that is, the benefits and costs). Convinced that even the dead should serve a utilitarian purpose, in his last will he directed that his body be publicly “anatomised” in order to publicize the benefits of donating bodies for medical research. Per his requests, his head was mummified and displayed. It can still be viewed today at University College London.

Jeremy Bentham's ideas profoundly influenced John Stuart Mill since his childhood. Mill acted as Bentham's philosophical and political aide-de-camp for many years. While Mill's philosophical thoughts were framed by the idea of utilitarianism, he objected to Bentham's claim that all pleasures are homogeneous (uniform in quality), arguing that the pleasures of the intellect are more desirable than other pleasures. As for political matters, although Mill was also an advocate of representative democracy based on universal suffrage, he further warned against the potential issues related to majoritarian institutions.

Sources:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bentham/#Int

https://londonist.com/london/museums-and-galleries/see-the-severed-head…

Featured in Exhibit


Two Lives

Date


circa. 21st century

Artist Unknown

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Submitted by Zephyr Xu on Mon, 02/22/2021 - 12:53

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