Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham (1748 to 1832) was an English philosopher, jurist and social reformer regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism. He took as the fundamental axiom of his philosophy the principle that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the measure of right and wrong, set out in his book An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), the first major book on the subject. He became a leading theorist of Anglo-American philosophy of law and a political radical who argued for individual and economic freedoms, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, and the abolition of slavery and of capital and physical punishment. He opposed natural law and natural rights, calling them nonsense upon stilts. His students included James Mill, John Stuart Mill and John Austin, and his preserved body, the auto-icon, is displayed at University College London.