Misplaced Pages

#443556

136-417: Jeremy Bentham ( / ˈ b ɛ n θ ə m / ; 4 February 1747/8 O.S. [15 February 1748 N.S. ] – 6 June 1832) was an English philosopher , jurist , and social reformer regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism . Bentham defined as the "fundamental axiom " of his philosophy the principle that "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." He became

272-448: A pecuniary interest in lowering the average rate of mortality. The Panopticon was intended to be cheaper than the prisons of his time, as it required fewer staff; "Allow me to construct a prison on this model", Bentham requested to a Committee for the Reform of Criminal Law, "I will be the gaoler . You will see ... that the gaoler will have no salary—will cost nothing to the nation." As

408-548: A Mr Whitehorne and daughter of mercer Thomas Grove, of Andover. His wealthy family were supporters of the Tory party . He was reportedly a child prodigy: he was found as a toddler sitting at his father's desk reading a multi-volume history of England, and he began to study Latin at the age of three. He learnt to play the violin , and at the age of seven Bentham would perform sonatas by Handel during dinner parties. He had one surviving sibling, Samuel Bentham (1757–1831), with whom he

544-425: A complete legal code for the young country. After he learned more about American law and realised that most of it was state-based, he promptly wrote to the governors of every single state with the same offer. During his lifetime, Bentham's codification efforts were completely unsuccessful. Even today, they have been completely rejected by almost every common law jurisdiction, including England. However, his writings on

680-436: A date such as 29   January, while being toward the end of a legal year, would also be near the beginning of the following "common" (and Scottish) year. It was to show this duality that the system of displaying two year numbers first came into use — examples may be seen on memorial tablets and in parish registers. Dating based on the year beginning on 25   March became known as "Annunciation Style" dates, while dates of

816-632: A foreign alliance and finalizing the Articles of Confederation . John Adams gave a speech in reply to Dickinson, restating the case for an immediate declaration. A vote was taken after a long day of speeches, each colony casting a single vote, as always. The delegation for each colony numbered from two to seven members, and each delegation voted among themselves to determine the colony's vote. Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against declaring independence. The New York delegation abstained, lacking permission to vote for independence. Delaware cast no vote because

952-598: A formal declaration would still have to be made. On the same day that Congress passed Adams' preamble, the Virginia Convention set the stage for a formal Congressional declaration of independence. On May 15, the Convention instructed Virginia's congressional delegation "to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or dependence upon,

1088-653: A formal response. Congress organized a boycott of British goods and petitioned the king for repeal of the acts. These measures were unsuccessful, however, since King George and the Prime Minister, Lord North , were determined to enforce parliamentary supremacy over the Thirteen Colonies. In November 1774, King George, in a letter to North, wrote, "blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent". Most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with Great Britain, even after fighting began in

1224-405: A human motive. Mill considered Bentham's view "to have done and to be doing very serious evil." In Mill's hands, "Benthamism" became a major element in the liberal conception of state policy objectives. Bentham's critics have claimed that he undermined the foundation of a free society by rejecting natural rights . Historian Gertrude Himmelfarb wrote "The principle of the greatest happiness of

1360-638: A leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law , and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism . He advocated individual and economic freedoms , the separation of church and state , freedom of expression , equal rights for women, the right to divorce, and (in an unpublished essay) the decriminalising of homosexual acts. He called for the abolition of slavery , capital punishment , and physical punishment , including that of children. He has also become known as an early advocate of animal rights . Though strongly in favour of

1496-515: A man suffer; seeing, as I do, how much more morality as well as intelligence, an adult quadruped of those and many other species has in him, than any biped has for some months after he has been brought into existence; nor does it appear to me how it should be, that a person to whom the production of pain, either in the one or in the other instance, is a source of amusement, would scruple to give himself that amusement when he could do so under an assurance of impunity. Dual dating As an example, in

SECTION 10

#1732852402444

1632-570: A means of helping to create full employment . He was also aware of the relevance of forced saving, propensity to consume , the saving-investment relationship, and other matters that form the content of modern income and employment analysis. His monetary view was close to the fundamental concepts employed in his model of utilitarian decision making. His work is considered to be an early precursor of modern welfare economics . Bentham stated that pleasures and pains can be ranked according to their value or "dimension" such as intensity, duration, certainty of

1768-531: A much-needed military victory in the Battle of Trenton against a Hessian military garrison at Trenton . Common Sense was sold and distributed widely and read aloud at taverns and meeting places. In proportion to the population of the colonies at that time (2.5 million), it had the largest sale and circulation of any book published in American history. As of 2006, it remains the all-time best-selling American title and

1904-474: A new status of interdependence: the United States was now a sovereign nation entitled to the privileges and responsibilities that came with that status. America thus became a member of the international community, which meant becoming a maker of treaties and alliances, a military ally in diplomacy, and a partner in foreign trade on a more equal basis." The declaration is not divided into formal sections; but it

2040-441: A pleasure or a pain. He was concerned with maxima and minima of pleasures and pains; and they set a precedent for the future employment of the maximisation principle in the economics of the consumer, the firm and the search for an optimum in welfare economics. Bentham advocated "Pauper Management" which involved the creation of a chain of large workhouses. Karl Marx described Bentham as "a genius of bourgeois stupidity". Bentham

2176-513: A precondition for the formation of expectations. As the hedonic calculus shows "expectation utilities" to be much higher than natural ones, it follows that Bentham does not favour the sacrifice of a few to the benefit of the many. Law professor Alan Dershowitz has quoted Bentham to argue that torture should sometimes be permitted. Utilitarianism was revised and expanded by Bentham's student John Stuart Mill , who sharply criticised Bentham's view of human nature, which failed to recognise conscience as

2312-554: A right of revolution. After unanimously ratifying the text on July 4, 1776, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was published as the printed Dunlap broadside , which was widely distributed. The Declaration was first read to the public simultaneously at noon on July 8, 1776, in three exclusively designated locations: Easton, Pennsylvania ; Philadelphia; and Trenton, New Jersey . What Jefferson called his "original Rough draft", one of several revisions,

2448-729: A series of measures to increase revenue from the colonies, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767. Parliament believed that these acts were a legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs to keep them in the British Empire . Many colonists, however, had developed a different perspective of the empire. The colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, and colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them. This tax dispute

2584-459: A site at Tothill Fields, near Westminster . Although this was common land, with no landowner, there were a number of parties with interests in it, including Earl Grosvenor , who owned a house on an adjacent site and objected to the idea of a prison overlooking it. Again, therefore, the scheme ground to a halt At this point, however, it became clear that a nearby site at Millbank , adjoining the Thames ,

2720-470: A small number of managers to oversee the activities of a large and unskilled workforce. Bentham began to develop this model, particularly as applicable to prisons, and outlined his ideas in a series of letters sent home to his father in England. He supplemented the supervisory principle with the idea of contract management ; that is, an administration by contract as opposed to trust, where the director would have

2856-428: A society. He calls for legislators to determine whether punishment creates an even more evil offence. Instead of suppressing the evil acts, Bentham argues that certain unnecessary laws and punishments could ultimately lead to new and more dangerous vices than those being punished to begin with, and calls upon legislators to measure the pleasures and pains associated with any legislation and to form laws in order to create

SECTION 20

#1732852402444

2992-646: A topic few had dared to discuss. As Common Sense was circulated throughout the Thirteen Colonies , public support for independence from Great Britain steadily increased. After reading it, Washington ordered that it be read by his Continental Army troops, who were demoralized following recent military defeats. A week later, Washington led the crossing of the Delaware in one of the Revolutionary War 's most complex and daring military campaigns, resulting in

3128-547: A week later by the New York Provincial Congress . The resolution of independence was adopted with twelve affirmative votes and one abstention, and the colonies formally severed political ties with Great Britain. John Adams wrote to his wife on the following day and predicted that July 2 would become a great American holiday He thought that the vote for independence would be commemorated; he did not foresee that Americans would instead celebrate Independence Day on

3264-410: Is advised that both year numbers be entered into modern documents until a copy of the original primary source can be checked, verifying which style was used in the 'official record'. Errors were often made in the early 19th century and have been perpetuated. In either case, to avoid further confusion, modern researchers are advised to be vigilant about annotating all dates with a notation indicating

3400-408: Is knowingly and willingly produced in any being whatsoever, is an act of cruelty; and, like other bad habits, the more the correspondent habit is indulged in, the stronger it grows, and the more frequently productive of its bad fruit. I am unable to comprehend how it should be, that to him to whom it is a matter of amusement to see a dog or a horse suffer, it should not be matter of like amusement to see

3536-523: Is most likely inauthentic, the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence , allegedly adopted in May 1775 (a full year before other local declarations). Some colonies held back from endorsing independence. Resistance was centered in the middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Advocates of independence saw Pennsylvania as the key; if that colony could be converted to

3672-408: Is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. Common Sense made a persuasive, impassioned case for independence, which had not been given serious consideration in the colonies. Paine linked independence with Protestant beliefs, as a means to present a distinctly American political identity, and he initiated open debate on

3808-571: Is often discussed as consisting of five parts: introduction , preamble , indictment of King George III, denunciation of the British people, and conclusion . Asserts as a matter of Natural Law the ability of a people to assume political independence; acknowledges that the grounds for such independence must be reasonable, and therefore explicable, and ought to be explained. "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve

3944-708: Is preserved at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. , complete with changes made by Adams and Franklin, and Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress. The best-known version of the Declaration is the signed copy displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., which is popularly regarded as the official document; this copy, engrossed by Timothy Matlack , was ordered by Congress on July 19, and signed primarily on August 2, 1776. On November 19, 1863, following

4080-484: Is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded; contradictory accounts were written many years later by Jefferson and Adams, too many years to be regarded as entirely reliable, although their accounts are frequently cited. What is certain is that the committee discussed the general outline which the document should follow and decided that Jefferson would write the first draft. The committee in general, and Jefferson in particular, thought that Adams should write

4216-562: Is still in print today. While some colonists still hoped for reconciliation, public support for independence strengthened considerably in early 1776. In February 1776, colonists learned of Parliament's passage of the Prohibitory Act , which established a blockade of American ports and declared American ships to be enemy vessels. John Adams , a strong supporter of independence, believed that Parliament had effectively declared American independence before Congress had been able to. Adams labeled

Jeremy Bentham - Misplaced Pages Continue

4352-602: Is usually expressed as the "Year of the Republic" — counting Year   1 as the foundation of the Republic of China in 1912   CE, so the current Gregorian year 2024 corresponds to the ROC year 113. There was some confusion when calendars changed, and the confusion may continue today when evaluating historical sources. When 'translating' dates from secondary historical sources for current use, for dates in January, February and March it

4488-399: The os sacrum are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason or perhaps the faculty of discourse ? But a full-grown horse or dog, is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month, old. But suppose

4624-577: The American Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. The Second Continental Congress convened at Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall , in Philadelphia in May 1775. Some delegates supported eventual independence for the colonies, but none had yet declared it publicly, which was an act of treason punishable by death under the laws of the British monarchy at

4760-764: The American Revolutionary War commenced with the Battles of Lexington and Concord , in April 1775. Two days prior to the Declaration's unanimous adoption, the Second Continental Congress unanimously passed the Lee Resolution , which established the consensus of the Congress that the British had no governing authority over the Thirteen Colonies. The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing 27 colonial grievances against King George III and by asserting certain natural and legal rights, including

4896-663: The Battle of Gettysburg , the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War , Abraham Lincoln made the Declaration the centerpiece of his Gettysburg Address , a brief but powerful and enduring 271-word statement dedicating what became Gettysburg National Cemetery . The Declaration of Independence has proven an influential and globally impactful statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal , that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and

5032-590: The Boston Tea Party in 1773. Anticipating the arrangement of the British Commonwealth , by 1774 American writers such as Samuel Adams , James Wilson , and Thomas Jefferson argued that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and that the colonies, which had their own legislatures, were connected to the rest of the empire only through their allegiance to the Crown. In 1774, Parliament passed

5168-830: The Coercive Acts , known as the Intolerable Acts in the colonies. This was intended to punish the colonists for the Gaspee Affair of 1772 and the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Many colonists considered the Coercive Acts to be in violation of the British Constitution and a threat to the liberties of all of British America . In September 1774, the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to coordinate

5304-454: The exigencies of their affairs" to adopt new governments. The resolution passed unanimously, and was even supported by Pennsylvania's John Dickinson , the leader of the anti-independence faction in Congress, who believed that it did not apply to his colony. This Day the Congress has passed the most important Resolution, that ever was taken in America. —John Adams, May 15, 1776 As

5440-404: The felicific calculus , Bentham proposed a classification of 12 pains and 14 pleasures, by which we might test the " happiness factor " of any action. For Bentham, according to P. J. Kelly, the law "provides the basic framework of social interaction by delimiting spheres of personal inviolability within which individuals can form and pursue their own conceptions of well-being". It provides security,

5576-521: The moral status of any action, which he called the hedonistic or felicific calculus . Principle of utility The principle of utility, or " greatest happiness principle ", forms the cornerstone of all Bentham's thought. By "happiness", he understood a predominance of "pleasure" over "pain". He wrote in An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation : Nature has placed mankind under

Jeremy Bentham - Misplaced Pages Continue

5712-449: The slave trade . Jefferson later wrote in his autobiography that Northern states were also supportive towards the clauses removal, "for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others." Jefferson wrote that Congress had "mangled" his draft version, but the Declaration that was finally produced was "the majestic document that inspired both contemporaries and posterity", in

5848-569: The 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress , who convened at Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall , in the colonial era capital of Philadelphia . The 56 delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence came to be known as the nation's Founding Fathers . The Declaration explains to the world why the Thirteen Colonies regarded themselves as independent sovereign states no longer subject to British colonial rule. The Declaration has since become one of

5984-465: The American colonies published their Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the British government did not issue any official response but instead secretly commissioned London lawyer and pamphleteer John Lind to publish a rebuttal. His 130-page tract was distributed in the colonies and contained an essay titled "Short Review of the Declaration" written by Bentham, a friend of Lind, which attacked and mocked

6120-515: The Americans' political philosophy . In 1786 and 1787, Bentham travelled to Krichev in White Russia (modern Belarus ) to visit his brother, Samuel , who was engaged in managing various industrial and other projects for Prince Potemkin . It was Samuel (as Jeremy later repeatedly acknowledged) who conceived the basic idea of a circular building at the hub of a larger compound as a means of allowing

6256-577: The British Constitution recognized certain fundamental rights that no government could violate, including Parliament. After the Townshend Acts, some essayists questioned whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies. As a result of this ideological shift in the colonies, many colonialists participated in tax protests against the Royal authority such as the Pine Tree Riot in 1772 and

6392-522: The British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Lee's resolution met with resistance in the ensuing debate. Opponents of the resolution conceded that reconciliation was unlikely with Great Britain, while arguing that declaring independence was premature, and that securing foreign aid should take priority. Advocates of

6528-515: The Congressional instructions revised. For Congress to declare independence, a majority of delegations would need authorization to vote for it, and at least one colonial government would need to specifically instruct its delegation to propose a declaration of independence in Congress. Between April and July 1776, a "complex political war" was waged to bring this about. In January 1776, Thomas Paine 's pamphlet Common Sense , which described

6664-604: The Continental Congress adopted Adams' May 15 preamble, and had sent to the Annapolis Convention for instructions. On May 20, the Annapolis Convention rejected Adams' preamble, instructing its delegates to remain against independence. But Samuel Chase went to Maryland and, thanks to local resolutions in favor of independence, was able to get the Annapolis Convention to change its mind on June 28. Only

6800-543: The Crown or Parliament of Great Britain". In accordance with those instructions, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented a three-part resolution to Congress on June 7. The motion was seconded by John Adams, calling on Congress to declare independence, form foreign alliances, and prepare a plan of colonial confederation. The part of the resolution relating to declaring independence read: "Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to

6936-479: The Declaration and the final official engrossed copy. The word "unanimous" was inserted as a result of a Congressional resolution passed on July 19, 1776: "Resolved, That the Declaration passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on parchment, with the title and stile of 'The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America,' and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress." Historian George Athan Billias says: "Independence amounted to

SECTION 50

#1732852402444

7072-654: The Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy and argued that it is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted. The 56 delegates who signed the Declaration represented each of the Thirteen Colonies : New Hampshire , Massachusetts Bay , Rhode Island and Providence Plantations , Connecticut , New York , New Jersey , Pennsylvania , Maryland , Delaware , Virginia , North Carolina , South Carolina , and Georgia . The Declaration of Independence inspired many similar documents in other countries,

7208-547: The God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America. By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year. Relations had been deteriorating between the colonies and the mother country since 1763. Parliament enacted

7344-479: The Gregorian calendar on 1   January 1912, but the lunisolar Chinese calendar is still used along with the Gregorian calendar, especially when determining certain traditional holidays. The reference has been a longitude of 120°E since 1929, which is also used for Chinese Standard Time ( UTC+8 ). Mainland China, Hong Kong , Macau , Malaysia , Indonesia , Singapore and Taiwan all have legal holidays based on

7480-563: The National Colonization Society's 'Proposal'. In 1823, he co-founded The Westminster Review with James Mill as a journal for the " Philosophical Radicals "—a group of younger disciples through whom Bentham exerted considerable influence in British public life. One was John Bowring , to whom Bentham became devoted, describing their relationship as "son and father": he appointed Bowring political editor of The Westminster Review and eventually his literary executor . Another

7616-605: The New York delegates were unable to get revised instructions. When Congress had been considering the resolution of independence on June 8, the New York Provincial Congress told the delegates to wait. But on June 30, the Provincial Congress evacuated New York as British forces approached, and would not convene again until July 10. This meant that New York's delegates would not be authorized to declare independence until after Congress had made its decision. Political maneuvering

7752-609: The October Revolution may be recorded as 25   October [ N.S. 7   November] 1917 (or 7   November [ O.S. 25   October] 1917). Japan , Korea , and China started using the Gregorian calendar on 1   January 1873, 1896, and 1912, respectively. They had used lunisolar calendars previously. None of them used the Julian calendar; the Old Style and New Style dates in these countries usually mean

7888-691: The Prohibitory Act the "Act of Independency", calling it "a compleat Dismemberment of the British Empire". Support for declaring independence grew even more when it was confirmed that King George had hired German mercenaries to use against his American subjects. In the campaign to revise Congressional instructions, many Americans formally expressed their support for separation from Great Britain in what were effectively state and local declarations of independence. Historian Pauline Maier identifies more than ninety such declarations that were issued throughout

8024-543: The Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled." Filippo Mazzei , an Italian physician and promoter of liberty, was a close friend and confidant of Thomas Jefferson. In 1774 he published a pamphlet containing the phrase, which Jefferson incorporated essentially intact into the Declaration of Independence: "All men are by nature equally free and independent". Congress ordered that

8160-491: The Rhode Island legislature renouncing its allegiance to Great Britain on May 4—the first colony to do so. Many declarations were resolutions adopted at town or county meetings that offered support for independence. A few came in the form of jury instructions, such as the statement issued on April 23, 1776, by Chief Justice William Henry Drayton of South Carolina: "the law of the land authorizes me to declare ... that George

8296-450: The Second Continental Congress then edited. Jefferson largely wrote the Declaration in isolation between June 11 and June 28, 1776, from the second floor of a three-story home he was renting at 700 Market Street in Philadelphia. The Declaration was a formal explanation of why the Continental Congress voted to declare American independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain , over a year after

SECTION 60

#1732852402444

8432-520: The Style of date, and to use a slash rather than a hyphen to indicate alternate dates. United States Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence , formally titled The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America in both the engrossed version and the original printing, is the founding document of the United States . On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by

8568-518: The Third, King of Great Britain ... has no authority over us, and we owe no obedience to him." Most of these declarations are now obscure, having been overshadowed by the resolution for independence, approved by Congress on July 2, and the declaration of independence, approved and printed on July 4 and signed in August. The modern scholarly consensus is that the best-known and earliest of the local declarations

8704-477: The Thirteen Colonies from April to July 1776. These "declarations" took a variety of forms. Some were formal written instructions for Congressional delegations, such as the Halifax Resolves of April 12, with which North Carolina became the first colony to explicitly authorize its delegates to vote for independence. Others were legislative acts that officially ended British rule in individual colonies, such as

8840-401: The case were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason ? nor, Can they talk ? but, Can they suffer ? Earlier in the paragraph, Bentham makes clear that he accepted that animals could be killed for food, or in defence of human life, provided that the animal was not made to suffer unnecessarily. Bentham did not object to medical experiments on animals , providing that

8976-419: The country seat of his patron Lord Lansdowne , he had passed his time at falling unsuccessfully in love with all the ladies of the house, whom he courted with a clumsy jocularity, while playing chess with them or giving them lessons on the harpsichord . Hopeful to the last, at the age of eighty he wrote again to one of them, recalling to her memory the far-off days when she had "presented him, in ceremony, with

9112-499: The date "10/21   February 1750/51" – a style seen in the records of Great Britain and its possessions – the notation arises from the prospective or previous adoption of the Gregorian calendar and a concurrent calendar reform . (The dual day number is due to the eleven days difference (at the time) between the Julian calendar date and the Gregorian one ;

9248-481: The date when the announcement of that act was finalized. I am apt to believe that [Independence Day] will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to

9384-494: The death of Emperor Shōwa —was followed by 8   January Heisei   1, which lasted until 31   December. Korea started using the Gregorian calendar on 1   January 1896, which was the 17th day of the 11th lunar month in not only Korea, but also in China that still used the lunisolar calendar. The lunisolar Korean calendar is now used in very limited unofficial purposes only. The Republic of China (ROC) started using

9520-428: The delegation was split between Thomas McKean , who voted yes, and George Read , who voted no. The remaining nine delegations voted in favor of independence, which meant that the resolution had been approved by the committee of the whole. The next step was for the resolution to be voted upon by Congress itself. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina was opposed to Lee's resolution but desirous of unanimity, and he moved that

9656-634: The document, but Adams persuaded them to choose Jefferson and promised to consult with him personally. Jefferson largely wrote the Declaration of Independence in isolation between June 11, 1776, and June 28, 1776, from the second floor of a three-story home he was renting at 700 Market Street in Philadelphia , now called the Declaration House and within walking distance of Independence Hall . Considering Congress's busy schedule, Jefferson probably had limited time for writing over these 17 days, and he likely wrote his first draft quickly. Examination of

9792-489: The draft "lie on the table" and then methodically edited Jefferson's primary document for the next two days, shortening it by a fourth, removing unnecessary wording, and improving sentence structure. They removed Jefferson's assertion that King George III had forced slavery onto the colonies, in order to moderate the document and appease those in South Carolina and Georgia, both states which had significant involvement in

9928-435: The dual year is due to a change of start of year , from 25   March to 1   January.) Long before the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, the date of the start of the year caused difficulties. Until 1752, England, Wales, Ireland and the American colonies started the legal year on 25   March, whereas Scotland (since 1600), as well as common usage, started the year on 1   January. This meant that

10064-521: The entire Democracy or Commons of the United Kingdom". Describing himself, among the names mentioned which also included Sir Francis Burdett , George Ensor , and Sir Matthew Wood , and as a "nonentity", Bentham declined the offer. On 3 August 1831 the Committee of the National Colonization Society approved the printing of its proposal to establish a free colony on the south coast of Australia, funded by

10200-544: The experiments had in mind a particular goal of benefit to humanity, and had a reasonable chance of achieving that goal. He wrote that otherwise he had a "decided and insuperable objection" to causing pain to animals, in part because of the harmful effects such practices might have on human beings. In a letter to the editor of the Morning Chronicle in March 1825, he wrote: I never have seen, nor ever can see, any objection to

10336-565: The extension of individual legal rights , he opposed the idea of natural law and natural rights (both of which are considered "divine" or "God-given" in origin), calling them "nonsense upon stilts". However, he viewed the Magna Carta as important, citing it to argue that the treatment of convicts in Australia was unlawful. Bentham was also a sharp critic of legal fictions . Bentham's students included his secretary and collaborator James Mill ,

10472-584: The final weeks of June 1776. On June 14, the Connecticut Assembly instructed its delegates to propose independence and, the following day, the legislatures of New Hampshire and Delaware authorized their delegates to declare independence. In Pennsylvania, political struggles ended with the dissolution of the colonial assembly, and a new Conference of Committees under Thomas McKean authorized Pennsylvania's delegates to declare independence on June 18. The Provincial Congress of New Jersey had been governing

10608-599: The first being the 1789 Declaration of United Belgian States issued during the Brabant Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands . It also served as the primary model for numerous declarations of independence in Europe , Latin America , Africa , and Oceania following its adoption. Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by

10744-558: The flower in the green lane" [citing Bentham's memoirs]. To the end of his life he could not hear of Bowood without tears swimming in his eyes, and he was forced to exclaim, "Take me forward, I entreat you, to the future—do not let me go back to the past." A psychobiographical study by Philip Lucas and Anne Sheeran argues that he may have had Asperger's syndrome . Bentham's daily pattern was to rise at 6 am, walk for 2 hours or more, and then work until 4 pm. The Faculty of Laws at University College London occupies Bentham House, next to

10880-404: The governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think.… Bentham's Principles of Morals and Legislation focuses on

11016-441: The greatest good for the greatest number. He argues that the concept of the individual pursuing his or her own happiness cannot be necessarily declared "right", because often these individual pursuits can lead to greater pain and less pleasure for a society as a whole. Therefore, the legislation of a society is vital to maintain the maximum pleasure and the minimum degree of pain for the greatest number of people. In his exposition of

11152-495: The greatest number was as inimical to the idea of liberty as to the idea of rights." Bentham's "hedonistic" theory (a term from J. J. C. Smart ) is often criticised for lacking a principle of fairness embodied in a conception of justice . In Bentham and the Common Law Tradition , Gerald J. Postema states: "No moral concept suffers more at Bentham's hand than the concept of justice. There is no sustained, mature analysis of

11288-550: The idea of a panopticon. Bentham, now aged 63, was still willing to be governor. However, as it became clear that there was still no real commitment to the proposal, he abandoned hope, and instead turned his attentions to extracting financial compensation for his years of fruitless effort. His initial claim was for the enormous sum of nearly £700,000, but he eventually settled for the more modest (but still considerable) sum of £23,000. The Penitentiary House, etc. Act 1812  [ d ] ( 52 Geo. 3 . c. 44) transferred his title in

11424-428: The instructions given to them. Regardless of their personal opinions, delegates could not vote to declare independence unless their instructions permitted such an action. Several colonies, in fact, expressly prohibited their delegates from taking any steps toward separation from Great Britain, while other delegations had instructions that were ambiguous on the issue; consequently, advocates of independence sought to have

11560-463: The last European country adopted it, it was often necessary to indicate the date of an event in both the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar. Although the OS/NS notation was originally used only to clarify the date of events in the British Empire, the usage was reprised in more recent English-language histories of Russia, which retained the Julian calendar until 1918. For example, the beginning of

11696-425: The latter's son, John Stuart Mill , the legal philosopher John Austin and American writer and activist John Neal . He "had considerable influence on the reform of prisons, schools, poor laws, law courts, and Parliament itself." On his death in 1832, Bentham left instructions for his body to be first dissected and then to be permanently preserved as an " auto-icon " (or self-image), which would be his memorial. This

11832-438: The legislation of a society. In order to measure the extent of pain or pleasure that a certain decision will create, he lays down a set of criteria divided into the categories of intensity , duration , certainty , proximity , productiveness , purity , and extent . Using these measurements, he reviews the concept of punishment and when it should be used as far as whether a punishment will create more pleasure or more pain for

11968-530: The limited degree of legal protection afforded to slaves in the French West Indies by the Code Noir , he wrote: The day has been, I am sad to say in many places it is not yet past, in which the greater part of the species, under the denomination of slaves, have been treated by the law exactly upon the same footing, as, in England for example, the inferior races of animals are still. The day may come when

12104-547: The lunisolar Chinese calendar, with the most important one being the Chinese New Year . As of 1995 to visually distinguish old and new style dates, writing new style dates with Arabic numerals but old style dates with Chinese characters , never Arabic numerals , was the standard in the People's Republic of China (PRC). From 1   November 2011, writing old style dates with Chinese characters , never Arabic numerals , remains

12240-705: The main UCL campus. Bentham's name was adopted by the Australian litigation funder IMF Limited to become Bentham IMF Limited on 28 November 2013, in recognition of Bentham being "among the first to support the utility of litigation funding". Bentham today is considered as the "Father of Utilitarianism". His ambition in life was to create a "Pannomion", a complete utilitarian code of law. He not only proposed many legal and social reforms, but also expounded an underlying moral principle on which they should be based. This philosophy of utilitarianism took for its "fundamental axiom" to be

12376-532: The most circulated, reprinted, and influential documents in world history. The Second Continental Congress charged the Committee of Five , including John Adams , Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Jefferson , Robert R. Livingston , and Roger Sherman , with authoring the Declaration. Adams, a leading proponent of independence, persuaded the Committee of Five to charge Jefferson with writing the document's original draft, which

12512-495: The notion that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong . Bentham claimed to have borrowed this concept from the writings of Joseph Priestley , although the closest that Priestley in fact came to expressing it was in the form "the good and happiness of the members, that is the majority of the members of any state, is the great standard by which every thing [ sic ] relating to that state must finally be determined." Bentham

12648-697: The notion." Thus, some critics object, it would be acceptable to torture one person if this would produce an amount of happiness in other people outweighing the unhappiness of the tortured individual. However, as P. J. Kelly argued in Utilitarianism and Distributive Justice: Jeremy Bentham and the Civil Law , Bentham had a theory of justice that prevented such consequences. Bentham's opinions about monetary economics were completely different from those of David Ricardo ; however, they had some similarities to those of Henry Thornton . He focused on monetary expansion as

12784-576: The older lunisolar dates and the newer Gregorian calendar dates respectively. In these countries, the old style calendars were similar, but not all the same. The Arabic numerals may be used for both calendar dates in modern Japanese and Korean languages, but not in Chinese language . Japan started using the Gregorian calendar on 1   January 1873, locally known as "the first day of the first month of Meiji 6" ( 明治6年1月1日 , Meiji rokunen ichigatsu tsuitachi ) . The preceding day, 31   December 1872,

12920-433: The other from this Time forward forever more. Congress next turned its attention to the committee's draft of the declaration. They made a few changes in wording during several days of debate and deleted nearly a fourth of the text. The wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, 1776, and sent to the printer for publication. There is a distinct change in wording from this original broadside printing of

13056-463: The panopticon was paradigmatic of several 19th-century " disciplinary " institutions. Bentham remained bitter throughout his later life about the rejection of the panopticon scheme, convinced that it had been thwarted by the King and an aristocratic elite. Philip Schofield argues that it was largely because of his sense of injustice and frustration that he developed his ideas of "sinister interest"—that is, of

13192-441: The principle of utility and how this view of morality ties into legislative practices. His principle of utility regards good as that which produces the greatest amount of pleasure and the minimum amount of pain and evil as that which produces the most pain without the pleasure. This concept of pleasure and pain is defined by Bentham as physical as well as spiritual. Bentham writes about this principle as it manifests itself within

13328-524: The prison built: when finished, it would be managed by himself as contractor-governor, with the assistance of Samuel. After unsuccessful attempts to interest the authorities in Ireland and revolutionary France, he started trying to persuade the prime minister, William Pitt , to revive an earlier abandoned scheme for a National Penitentiary in England, this time to be built as a panopticon. He was eventually successful in winning over Pitt and his advisors, and in 1794

13464-476: The pro-independence cause, it was believed that the others would follow. On May 1, however, opponents of independence retained control of the Pennsylvania Assembly in a special election that had focused on the question of independence. In response, Congress passed a resolution on May 10 which had been promoted by John Adams and Richard Henry Lee , calling on colonies without a "government sufficient to

13600-447: The province since January 1776; they resolved on June 15 that Royal Governor William Franklin was "an enemy to the liberties of this country" and had him arrested. On June 21, they chose new delegates to Congress and empowered them to join in a declaration of independence. As of the end of June, only two of the thirteen colonies had yet to authorize independence, Maryland and New York. Maryland's delegates previously walked out when

13736-465: The pursuit of Happiness ." Stephen Lucas called the Declaration of Independence "one of the best-known sentences in the English language." Historian Joseph Ellis has written that the document contains "the most potent and consequential words in American history". The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive. This view was notably promoted by Lincoln, who considered

13872-406: The putting of dogs and other inferior animals to pain, in the way of medical experiment, when that experiment has a determinate object, beneficial to mankind, accompanied with a fair prospect of the accomplishment of it. But I have a decided and insuperable objection to the putting of them to pain without any such view. To my apprehension, every act by which, without prospect of preponderant good, pain

14008-447: The rebellion. A pro-American minority in Parliament warned that the government was driving the colonists toward independence. Despite this growing popular support for independence, the Second Continental Congress initially lacked the clear authority to declare it. Delegates had been elected to Congress by 13 different governments, which included extralegal conventions, ad hoc committees, and elected assemblies, and they were bound by

14144-471: The resolution countered that foreign governments would not intervene in an internal British struggle, and so a formal declaration of independence was needed before foreign aid was possible. All Congress needed to do, they insisted, was to "declare a fact which already exists". Delegates from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York were still not yet authorized to vote for independence, however, and some of them threatened to leave Congress if

14280-402: The resolution were adopted. Congress, therefore, voted on June 10 to postpone further discussion of Lee's resolution for three weeks. Until then, Congress decided that a committee should prepare a document announcing and explaining independence in case Lee's resolution was approved when it was brought up again in July. Support for a Congressional declaration of independence was consolidated in

14416-409: The rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been witholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may one day come to be recognised that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of

14552-611: The revolutionary discourse of natural rights and of the violence that arose after the Jacobins took power (1792). Between 1808 and 1810, he held a personal friendship with Latin American revolutionary Francisco de Miranda and paid visits to Miranda's Grafton Way house in London. He also developed links with José Cecilio del Valle . In 1821, John Cartwright proposed to Bentham that they serve as "Guardians of Constitutional Reform", seven "wise men" whose reports and observations would "concern

14688-634: The sale of appropriated colonial lands, overseen by a joint-stock company, and which would be granted powers of self-government as soon as was practicable. Contrary to assumptions, Bentham had no hand in the preparation of the 'Proposal to His Majesty's Government for founding a colony on the Southern Coast of Australia, which was prepared under the auspices of Robert Gouger , Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey , and Anthony Bacon . Bentham did, however, in August 1831, draft an unpublished work entitled 'Colonization Company Proposal', which constitutes his commentary upon

14824-616: The site to the Crown. More successful was his cooperation with Patrick Colquhoun in tackling the corruption in the Pool of London . This resulted in the Depredations on the Thames Act 1800 ( 39 & 40 Geo. 3 . c. 87) The Act created the Thames River Police , which was the first preventive police force in the country and was a precedent for Robert Peel 's reforms 30 years later. Bentham

14960-561: The standard in the PRC, but new style dates may be written with either Arabic or Chinese numerals. In Taiwan, even though new style dates are written in Chinese characters in very formal texts, it is now common to see Arabic numerals in new style dates in less formal texts. When writing old style dates, Chinese characters are usually used, but Arabic numerals may still be seen. The calendar year in Taiwan

15096-409: The start of the year change, to 1   January from 25   March, and some historians still believe this is the best practice. However, OS and NS may refer to both alterations of the calendar: constructions like 31   August [ O.S. 20   August] 1753 may be seen. During the period between 1582, when the first countries adopted the Gregorian calendar , and 1923, when

15232-557: The subject laid the foundation for the moderately successful codification work of David Dudley Field II in the United States a generation later. Bentham is widely regarded as one of the earliest proponents of animal rights . He argued and believed that the ability to suffer, not the ability to reason, should be the benchmark, or what he called the "insuperable line". If reason alone were the criterion by which we judge who ought to have rights, human infants and adults with certain forms of disability might fall short, too. In 1780, alluding to

15368-480: The terms "Old Style" (OS) and "New Style" (NS) were more commonly added to dates when it proved necessary or expedient to identify which calendar was being used for the given date. Often, both were given — for example: 20   January 1708   (OS) (1709   (NS)). There may be some confusion as to which calendar alteration OS or NS refers to: the change of the start of the year, or the transition of one style of calendar to another. Historically, OS referred only to

15504-414: The text of the early Declaration drafts reflects the influence that John Locke and Thomas Paine , author of Common Sense had on Jefferson. He then consulted the other members of the Committee of Five who offered minor changes, and then produced another copy incorporating these alterations. The committee presented this copy to the Congress on June 28, 1776. The title of the document was "A Declaration by

15640-439: The time. Many colonists believed that Parliament no longer had sovereignty over them, but they were still loyal to King George, thinking he would intercede on their behalf. They were disabused of that notion in late 1775, when the king rejected Congress's second petition , issued a Proclamation of Rebellion , and announced before Parliament on October 26 that he was considering "friendly offers of foreign assistance" to suppress

15776-440: The uphill battle against the British for independence as a challenging but achievable and necessary objective, was published in Philadelphia . In Common Sense , Paine wrote the famed phrase: These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell,

15912-425: The vested interests of the powerful conspiring against a wider public interest—which underpinned many of his broader arguments for reform. On his return to England from Russia, Bentham had commissioned drawings from an architect, Willey Reveley . In 1791, he published the material he had written as a book, although he continued to refine his proposals for many years to come. He had by now decided that he wanted to see

16048-586: The vote be postponed until the following day. On July 2, South Carolina reversed its position and voted for independence. In the Pennsylvania delegation, Dickinson and Robert Morris abstained, allowing the delegation to vote three-to-two in favor of independence. The tie in the Delaware delegation was broken by the timely arrival of Caesar Rodney , who voted for independence. The New York delegation abstained once again since they were still not authorized to vote for independence, although they were allowed to do so

16184-419: The watchmen cannot be seen, they need not be on duty at all times, effectively leaving the watching to the watched. According to Bentham's design, the prisoners would also be used as menial labour, walking on wheels to spin looms or run a water wheel . This would decrease the cost of the prison and give a possible source of income. The ultimately abortive proposal for a panopticon prison to be built in England

16320-461: The words of his biographer John Ferling . Congress tabled the draft of the declaration on Monday, July 1 and resolved itself into a committee of the whole , with Benjamin Harrison of Virginia presiding, and they resumed debate on Lee's resolution of independence. John Dickinson made one last effort to delay the decision, arguing that Congress should not declare independence without first securing

16456-561: The year commencing on 1   January were described as "Circumcision Style" dates, because this was the date of the Feast of the Circumcision , commemorating the eighth day of Jesus Christ 's life after his birth, counted from its observation on Christmas Day (25   December). In 1752, England and its possessions changed the start of the year to 1   January, and also adopted the Gregorian calendar (on 2   September ). Thereafter,

16592-605: Was Edwin Chadwick , who wrote on hygiene, sanitation, and policing and was a major contributor to the Poor Law Amendment Act : Bentham employed Chadwick as a secretary and bequeathed him a large legacy. Bentham had several infatuations with women, and wrote on sex. He never married. An insight into his character is given in Michael St. John Packe's The Life of John Stuart Mill : During his youthful visits to Bowood House ,

16728-568: Was "the second day of the twelfth month of Meiji 5" ( 明治5年12月2日 , Meiji gonen jūnigatsu futsuka ) . Japan currently employs two calendar systems: Gregorian and the Japanese era name calendar. Specifically, the months and days now correspond to those of the Gregorian calendar, but the year is expressed as an offset of the era . For example, the Gregorian year 2007 corresponds to Heisei   19. An era does not necessarily begin on 1   January. For example, 7   January Shōwa 64—the day of

16864-410: Was a rare major figure in the history of philosophy to endorse psychological egoism . He was also a determined opponent of religion, as Crimmins observes: "Between 1809 and 1823 Jeremy Bentham carried out an exhaustive examination of religion with the declared aim of extirpating religious beliefs, even the idea of religion itself, from the minds of men." Bentham also suggested a procedure for estimating

17000-498: Was available for sale, and this time things ran more smoothly. Using government money, Bentham bought the land on behalf of the Crown for £12,000 in November 1799. From his point of view, the site was far from ideal, being marshy, unhealthy, and too small. When he asked the government for more land and more money, however, the response was that he should build only a small-scale experimental prison—which he interpreted as meaning that there

17136-404: Was close. He attended Westminster School ; in 1760, at age 12, his father sent him to The Queen's College, Oxford , where he completed his bachelor's degree in 1764, receiving the title of MA in 1767. He trained as a lawyer and, though he never practised, was called to the bar in 1769. He became deeply frustrated with the complexity of English law, which he termed the "Demon of Chicane". When

17272-599: Was done, and the auto-icon is now on public display in the entrance of the Student Centre at University College London (UCL). Because of his arguments in favour of the general availability of education, he has been described as the "spiritual founder" of UCL. However, he played only a limited direct part in its foundation. Bentham was born on 4 February 1747/8 O.S. [15 February 1748 N.S. ] in Houndsditch , London , to attorney Jeremiah Bentham and Alicia Woodward, widow of

17408-481: Was in correspondence with many influential people. In the 1780s, for example, Bentham maintained a correspondence with the ageing Adam Smith , in an unsuccessful attempt to convince Smith that interest rates should be allowed to freely float. As a result of his correspondence with Mirabeau and other leaders of the French Revolution , Bentham was declared an honorary citizen of France. He was an outspoken critic of

17544-442: Was little real commitment to the concept of the panopticon as a cornerstone of penal reform Negotiations continued, but in 1801 Pitt resigned from office, and in 1803 the new Addington administration decided not to proceed with the project. Bentham was devastated: "They have murdered my best days." Nevertheless, a few years later the government revived the idea of a National Penitentiary, and in 1811 and 1812 returned specifically to

17680-466: Was meant to encourage the overthrow of the governments of Pennsylvania and Maryland , which were still under proprietary governance. Congress passed the preamble on May 15 after several days of debate, but four of the middle colonies voted against it, and the Maryland delegation walked out in protest. Adams regarded his May 15 preamble effectively as an American declaration of independence, although

17816-456: Was one among his many proposals for legal and social reform. But Bentham spent some sixteen years of his life developing and refining his ideas for the building and hoped that the government would adopt the plan for a National Penitentiary appointing him as contractor-governor. Although the prison was never built, the concept had an important influence on later generations of thinkers. Twentieth-century French philosopher Michel Foucault argued that

17952-435: Was paid £2,000 for preliminary work on the project.< The intended site was one that had been authorised (under an act of 1779 ) for the earlier penitentiary, at Battersea Rise; but the new proposals ran into technical legal problems and objections from the local landowner, Earl Spencer . Other sites were considered, including one at Hanging Wood, near Woolwich , but all proved unsatisfactory. Eventually Bentham turned to

18088-543: Was part of a larger divergence between British and American interpretations of the British Constitution and the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies. The orthodox British view, dating from the Glorious Revolution of 1688, was that Parliament was the supreme authority throughout the empire, and anything that Parliament did was constitutional. In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that

18224-440: Was setting the stage for an official declaration of independence even while a document was being written to explain the decision. On June 11, 1776, Congress appointed the Committee of Five to draft a declaration, including John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. The committee took no minutes, so there

18360-408: Was the custom, Congress appointed a committee to draft a preamble to explain the purpose of the resolution. John Adams wrote the preamble, which stated that because King George had rejected reconciliation and was hiring foreign mercenaries to use against the colonies, "it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the said crown should be totally suppressed". Adams' preamble

18496-431: Was the first person to be an aggressive advocate for the codification of all of the common law into a coherent set of statutes; he was actually the person who coined the verb "to codify" to refer to the process of drafting a legal code. He lobbied hard for the formation of codification commissions in both England and the United States, and went so far as to write to President James Madison in 1811 to volunteer to write

#443556