Not Paul, but Jesus

Jeremy Bentham

Description

Philosopher and scholar Jeremy Bentham played an important role in the early formation of judicial philosophy and philosophy of law. He is also credited as playing a key part in the development of the moral philosophy known as utilitarianism, in which an action's justness is judged based on its ability to have a positive impact on the greatest number of people. Bentham brings both of these domains to bear in this fascinating look at the Apostle Paul.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776531417
• Langue: English

Extrait

NOT PAUL, BUT JESUS
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JEREMY BENTHAM
Edited by
JOHN J. CRANDALL
 
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Not Paul, but Jesus First published in 1823 Epub ISBN 978-1-77653-141-7 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77653-142-4 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Editor's Preface Introduction Plan of the Work Table I - Outward Conversion Chapter I Table II - Paul Disbelieved Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Endnotes
Editor's Preface
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Jeremy Bentham, an eminent English judicial or jural philosopher, wasborn in London, February 15, 1748, and died at Westminster, hisresidence for six years previously, June 6, 1832. His grandfather was aLondon Attorney; his father, who followed the same profession, was ashrewd man of business, and added considerably to his patrimony by landspeculations. These London Benthams were probably an offshoot from anancient York family of the same name, which boasted a Bishopric amongits members; but our author did not trouble himself to trace hisgenealogy beyond the pawnbroker. His mother, Alicia Groove, was thedaughter of an Andover shopkeeper. Jeremy, the eldest, and for nineyears the only child of this marriage, was for the first sixteen yearsof his life exceedingly puny, small and feeble. At the same time, heexhibited a remarkable precocity which greatly stimulated the pride andaffection of his father. At five years of age he acquired a knowledge ofmusical notes and learned to play the violin. At four or earlier, havingpreviously learned to write, he was initiated into Latin grammar, and inhis seventh year entered Westminster School. Meanwhile, he was taughtFrench by a private master at home and at seven read Telemaque, a bookwhich strongly impressed him. Learning to dance was a much more seriousundertaking, as he was so weak in his legs.
Young as he was, he acquired distinction at Westminster as a fabricatorof Latin and Greek verses, the great end and aim of the instructiongiven there.
When twelve years old, he was entered as a Commoner at Queen's College,Oxford, where he spent the next three years. Though very uncomfortableat Oxford, he went through the exercises of the College with credit andeven with some distinction. Some Latin verses of his, on the accessionof George III, attracted a great deal of attention as the production ofone so young. Into all of the disputations which formed a part of theCollege exercises, he entered with zeal and much satisfaction; yet henever felt at home in the University because of its historical monotony,and of all of which he retained the most unfavorable recollections.
In 1763, while not yet sixteen, he took the degree of A.B. Shortlyafter this he began his course of Law in Lincoln's Inn, and journeyedback and forth to Oxford to hear Blackstone's Lectures. These lectureswere published and read throughout the realm of England and particularlyin the American Colonies. These were criticised by the whole school ofCromwell, Milton and such followers as Priestly and others in Englandand many in the Colonies in America. Young Bentham returned to Londonand attended as a student the Court of the King's Bench, then presidedover by Mansfield, of whom he continued for some years a great admirer.
Among the advocates, Dunning's clearness, directness and precision mostimpressed him. He took the degree of A.M. at the age of 18, theyoungest graduate that had been known at the Universities; and in 1772he was admitted to the Bar.
Young Bentham had breathed from infancy, at home, at school, at collegeand in the Courts, an atmosphere conservative and submissive toauthority, yet in the progress of his law studies, he found a strikingcontrast between the structural imperialism of the British Empire asexpounded by Blackstone and others of his day, and the philosophicalsocial state discussed by Aristotle, Plato, Aurelius, the strugglingpatriots of France, and the new brotherhood, then agitating the coloniesof America.
His father had hoped to see him Lord-Chancellor, and took great pains topush him forward. But having perceived a shocking contrast between thelaw as it was under the Church imperial structure and such as heconceived it ought to be, he gradually abandoned the position of asubmissive and admiring student and assumed a position among the schoolof reformers and afterwards the role of sharp critic and indignantdenouncer.
He heroically suffered privations for several years in Lincoln's Inngarrett, but persevered in study. He devoted some of his time to thestudy of science. The writings of Hume, Helvetius and others led him toadopt utility as the basis of Morals and Legislation. There haddeveloped two distinct parties in England: The Radicals andImperialists. The Radicals contended that the foundation of Legislationwas that utility which produced the greatest happiness to the greatestnumber.
Blackstone and the Ecclesiastics had adopted the theory of Locke, thatthe foundation of Legislation was a kind of covenant of mankind toconform to the laws of God and Nature, as interpreted by hereditarilyself-constituted rulers.
Bentham contended that this was only a vague and uncertain collection ofwords well adapted to the promotion of rule by dogmatic opinions of theLords and King and Ecclesiastics in combination well calculated todeprive the people of the benefits of popular government. He conceivedthe idea of codifying the laws so as to define them in terms of thegreatest good to the greatest number, and devoted a large share of thebalance of his life to this work.
In 1775 he published a small book in defense of the policy of Lord Northtoward the Colonies, but for fear of prosecution it was issued by oneJohn Lind and extensively read. A little later he published a bookentitled "A Fragment on Government." This created a great deal ofattention. Readers variously ascribed the book to Mansfield, to Camdenand to Dunning. The impatient pride of Bentham's father betrayed thissecret. It was variously interpreted as a philosophical Treatise and aCritical Personal Attack upon the Government. But he persevered in theadvocacy of his principals of Morals and Government. He hoped also to beappointed Secretary of the Commission sent out by Lord North to proposeterms to the revolted American Colonies. But as King George III hadcontracted a dislike to him, he was disappointed in his plan ofConference with the Colonies. His writings were, however, moreappreciated in France. He was openly espoused as a philosopher andreformer by D'Alimbert, Castillux, Brissat and others. But in themeantime some such men as Lord Shelbourne, Mills and others became hisfriends and admirers, and encouraged him to persevere with hisphilosophical Code of laws, largely gleaned from the ancientphilosophers of liberty and equality which had been smothered andsuperseded by military and Church imperialism.
In 1785 he took an extensive tour across the Alps and while at Kricov onthe Dou, he wrote his letters on Usury. These were printed in London,which were now welcomed by the people largely on account of hisreputation in France as a philosopher of popular government. In themeantime, Paley had printed a treatise on the Principle of applyingutility to morals and legislation. He determined to print his views inFrench and address them to that people then struggling for liberalgovernment.
He revised his sheets on his favorite penal Code and published themunder the title of "An Introduction to the Principles of Morals andLegislation." The Principles enunciated in this treatise attracted theattention of the liberals in France, as well as England and America.Mirabeau and other French publishers spread his reputation far and wide.
Meanwhile, Bentham with the idea of aiding the deliberations of theStates General of France, and encouraged by the liberals on bothcontinents, and especially such men as Franklin, Jefferson and others,printed a "Draft of a Code for the organization of a JudicialEstablishment in France," for which services the National Assemblyconferred on him the Citizenship of France by a decree, August 23, 1792,in which his name was included with those of Priestly, Paine,Wilberforce, Clarkson, Mackintosh, Anacharsis, Clootz, Washington,Klopstock, Kosiosco, and several others.
In the meantime, in his travels, he conceived an extensive plan ofPrison reform which he strenuously urged the Crown Officers and theEnglish Parliament to adopt. After several years of strenuous labors andthe expenditure of a large part of the patrimony left him by his father,the enterprise was thwarted by the refusal of the King to concur withParliament in the enterprise. This scheme is fully set forth in thehistories of the reign of George III. But to avoid persecution under thedrastic penal Codes of England, Bentham boasted that he was a man of noparty but a man of all countries and a fraternal unit of the human race,he had come to occupy at home the position of a party chief.
He espoused with characteristic zeal and enthusiasm the ideas of theradicals, who, in spite of themselves, were ranked as a political party.He went, indeed, the whole length, not merely republicanism, but on manypoints of ancient democracy including Universal Suffrage and theEmancipation of all Colonies.
No matter how adroitly the Contention was managed, the Imperialistsinsisted th