Jeremy Bentham
Did Jeremy Bentham's design of law bring the greatest happiness to everyone?
4.5 (25)
81 mins
Discover Jeremy Bentham’s revolutionary philosophy of utilitarianism and how he used it to reshape prisons, laws, and society for the greatest happiness. Explore how his life combines rigorous thinking, eccentric habits, and a relentless drive for reform.
Ep 1:
The Man in the Glass Case
Meet the preserved corpse still wheeled out at UCL, and the child prodigy behind it who rejected law, religion, and privilege to found a revolutionary philosophy of happiness.
Ep 2:
Calculating Happiness Itself
Bentham devises a mathematical formula for pleasure and pain, then applies his ruthless logic to a real-world dilemma: what should society do about beggars on the street?
Ep 3:
The All-Seeing Eye of Reform
Bentham's most notorious invention—a circular prison of constant surveillance—promises humane reform, but its watchful design will haunt debates about power and control for centuries.
Ep 4:
Sticks, Teapots, and Global Legacies
Behind the philosophy lurks a genuinely strange man—knighted walking sticks, a pet pig, a sacred teapot—whose ideas nonetheless conquered legal systems across Europe and beyond.
Ep 5:
An Idea Conquers the World
From Napoleon's law codes to Latin American revolutions, Bentham's utilitarian doctrine spreads across continents, reshaping nations even as translators battle his impenetrable prose.
Ep 6:
Real Entities, Radical Politics
Utilitarianism crosses the Atlantic into American law schools and Spanish colonies, while Bentham's philosophy proves both irresistibly practical and dangerously radical to entrenched powers.
Ep 7:
The Newton of Legislation
A deep dive into the logical machinery behind Bentham's radical mind—his war on 'nonsense upon stilts'—and his lifelong evolution toward democratic idealism.
Ep 8:
The Price of Perfect Logic
Bentham's towering achievements in law, economics, and reform meet the messy reality of a flawed archive, a neglected legacy, and an uncompromising personal honesty.
Ep 9:
The Auto-Icon's Final Lesson
Utilitarianism's harshest critics and its enduring relevance collide as we examine the personal costs behind Bentham's calculations of the greatest happiness for all.
Discussions (11)
Olive
Level 4 · 9 mo agoThe real head is actually locked in a safe rn 🥴
Layne
Level 6 · 9 mo agoYou can't calculate happiness. It is subjective noise.
Dean
Level 9 · 9 mo agoUtilitarian to the bone.
