Study On Bentham's Analytical Jurisprudence Of Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was a well-known English jurist and philosopher. He was both the founder of utilitarianism and the spiritual leader of the philosophical radical movement in early 18th century Great Britain. Bentham was not only a philosopher, but a political and social advocate. His thought, with utilitarianism as its core element, has generated broad and long-lasing influence on various disciplines, including Legal Science, Ethics, Philosophy, Political Science, Economics, Logic, Linguistics, and so on. In the meantime, the legal reform and political reform movements he championed had dramatically facilitated the reforms and progresses of legal and political systems in Great Britain, as well as in Europe.Bentham's thoughts should be deemed as one of the most precious fortune in the history of human civilization. Departing from the reality that utilitarianism has dominated social sciences such as Legal Science, Economics, Ethics, as so on, for over a century, few attentions have been paid to Bentham himself. Almost in the entire 20th Century, his thoughts were overlooked, and his contributions underestimated. Even compared with other British thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke, and Hume, the attention he received was far less than deserved.Ironically, as John Rawls, the liberal ethicist and philosopher, attacked utilitarianism by his social contract account of justice,"justice as fairness", Bentham nevertheless was somehow rediscovered.The University College London established the Bentham Committee and UCL Bentham Project in 1959 and 1968, to collate and published Bentham's transcripts collected by the University, and published the revised version of Jeremy Bentham. As this task developed, Bentham won the attention from the academic world again, and the traditional image has been flourished, modified, or even changed. This tide of Bentham study hit not only the Great Britain, but also Europe, the United States, Japan, as so on. And all of sudden, Benthamite seemed to revive.The study on Bentham in this thesis is not merely a simple response towards this revival tide based on academic interest. The author hopes this study on Bentham's legal thoughts will help to improve legal study and perfect legal practice in China. The author believes that legal studies in contemporary China has not yet surpassed the period of conceptual enlightenment, the majority works are still focusing on advocating theoretical concepts that hardly touch on day-to-day legal practice. The current legal studies provide few effective mechanisms or practical theories to address endless fresh and complicated legal issues. In this regard, Bentham's legal thoughts with an emphasis on reality and analysis have vast potential values for us to learn and benefit from.This thesis, with Bentham's legal positivism as the main object, has two main missions. Firstly, it tries to draw a full image of Bentham. Secondly, it will demonstrate the complexity of Bentham's thoughts.Thus, this article will be divided into four chapters.This first chapter is an introduction, with a focus on Bentham study'background and. It consists of the historical background of Bentham's thoughts, his biography and the overview of Bentham study.The second chapter mainly studies Bentham's utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is both a beginning and an end of Bentham's overall thoughts. It is also the theoretical foundation of legal positivism. This chapter will first trace the historical background of Bentham's utilitarianism, and then introduce the main feature of it. The main goal is to unveil the core of Bentham's utilitarianism----the analytic skill, which emphasizing using simple elements to address complicated social issues.The third chapter mainly introduces Bentham's legal thoughts system and its main features. The main goal is to demonstrate Bentham's legal structure analysis theory. Relying on language and logic, Bentham developed a set"logic of will"applicable in legal norms analysis, which can be borrowed to improve both the legal study and legal practice in China.The fourth chapter tries to reevaluate Bentham's legal analysis framework from multiple perspectives. In this chapter, I will firstly try to unveil Bentham's inheriting and surpassing legal sciences of the age the enlightenment as a Jurist. Secondly, I will manage to sort out the academic pedigree of the legal positivism, especially the inheriting relationship Between Bentham and Austin and Hart. Thirdly, I will try to demonstrate the internal tension of Bentham's legal theory from the perspective of the relationship between law and morality. Lastly, I will introduce the key points of Bentham's critics, and then comment on those criticisms.