Benthamism

This culture of local governance is basically a negation of the mechanism of the majority vote, or Benthamism ("It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong") in the Western tradition.

(1) According to Unger, the influence of the reasoned elaboration of law diminished in the early 21st century and two legal analytic approaches that Unger identifies as 'retro doctrinalism' and 'shrunken Benthamism' have filled the space of contemporary legal thought.

demarcated: Old Toryism (pre-1825), Benthamism (1825-70) and

tellingly entitled Period of Benthamism or Individualism--Bentham

Yet Jeremy Bentham was not the only possible source for the transmission of what Collins describes as 'Benthamism'.

"Thus for the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem--how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well." (39) Was this ethical concern simply an "escape from Benthamism," (40) as Goodwin suggests, (41) where the good was what led to maximizing social utility?

See for instance: Francis O'Gorman's Victorian Literature and Finance (2007); Mary Poovey's Genres of the Credit Economy (2008); Kathleen Blake's Pleasure of Benthamism: Victorian Literature, Utility, Political Economy (2009); Nancy Henry and Cannon Schmitt's Victorian Investments: New Perspectives on Finance and Culture; Audrey Jaffe's The Affective Life of the Average Man (2010); Tamara S.

The period of individualism, argued Dicey, was in fact "Benthamism of common sense" (89) rather than strict dogma, which under the name of liberalism became the main factor in the development of English law.

This was the farthest thing from what Kirk derisively termed "Benthamism," a utilitarianism that would change customs and tradition as soon as some abstract principle bid it to do so.

First, he arranged for him to study law under John Austin, an eminent jurist and convert to Benthamism. He then gave John a copy of Bentham's Traite de legislation civile et penale, a French redaction of Bentham's utilitarian philosophy.

(20) That the conservative Wemyss would cite Bentham in support of his opposition to Chamberlain's collectivism at first glance seems to vindicate Dicey's pronouncement of individualism as Benthamism. However, it is a mistake to see Wemyss' quotation of Bentham as proof that his political agenda was built upon the utilitarian philosophy.