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Logic.—J. B.’s Logical Arrangements, employed as Instruments in Legislation; and Locutions, employed as Instruments in the Field of Thought and Action. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 10 (Memoirs Part I and Correspondence) [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 10.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Logic.—J. B.’s Logical Arrangements, employed as Instruments in Legislation; and Locutions, employed as Instruments in the Field of Thought and Action.

June 29, 1827.

1.

1. Constantly actual end of action on the part of every individual at the moment of action, his greatest happiness, according to his view of it at that moment.

2.

2. Constantly proper end of action on the part of every individual at the moment of action, his real greatest happiness from that moment to the end of life. See Deontology private.

3.

3. Constantly proper end of action on the part of every individual considered as trustee for the community, of which he is considered as a member, the greatest happiness of that same community, in so far as depends upon the interest which forms the bond of union between its members.

4.

4. Constantly proper end of action on the part of an individual, having a share in the power of legislation in and for an independent community, termed a political state, the greatest happiness of the greatest number of its members.

5.

5. Next subordinate ends to the all-comprehensive end of Legislation and Government in all its branches, or, say departments—

  • 1. Subsistence.
  • 2. Abundance.
  • 3. Security.
  • 4. Equality.

6.

6. Means for fulfilment of the above-mentioned all-embracing ends on the part of the several functionaries employed in Government, appropriate aptitude.

7.

7. Elements, or, say branches of appropriate aptitude—

  • 1. Moral.
  • 2. Intellectual.
  • 3. Active.

8.

8. Sub-branches, or, say elements of intellectual aptitude—

  • 1. Cognitional knowledge.
  • 2. Judicial judgment.

9.

9. N.B.—Subject-matters to which the divisions and distinctions, No. 7 and 8, are applicable.

1. The agents, or, say actors or operators, whether functionaries or non-functionaries.

2. Their several operations.

3. The several works, or other results produced by them.

4. The several instruments employed by them.

10.

10.Inaptitude—modes, or, say features of it, are correspondent and opposite to the several elements, or say branches, of appropriate aptitude, Nos. 7, 8,—which see.

Each feature of inaptitude consists in the absence, total or partial, of the correspondent branch of appropriate aptitude.

11.

Efficient causes of intellectual inaptitude in the judicial branch.

  • 1. Primæval, or, say original weakness.
  • 2. Sinister interest.
  • 3. Interest-begotten prejudice.
  • 4. Authority-begotten prejudice.

12.

Efficient causes of human action, operating as sources of pleasures, and exemption from pains—the several sanctions. These are—

  • 1. The physical (the basis of the rest.)
  • 2. The moral.
  • 3. The political.
  • 4. The religious.

☞ For the several pleasures and pains, see Springs-of-action Table. (Vol. i. p. 195.)

13.

Immediate sources of pleasure and exemption from pain, and objects of general desire—elements of prosperity.

1. Money, including money’s worth.

2. Power.

3. Reputation—natural, viz., positively good, or, say preëminently ditto.

4. Reputation—factitious.

14.

On the part of functionaries, objects of universal desire, thence efficient causes of sinister interest.

1. Money, including money’s worth.

2. Power.

3. Reputation—natural, viz., positively good, or, say preëminent.

4. Reputation—factitious; efficient causes of it, factitious honour and dignity.

5. Genealogical relationship to individuals, living or dead, invested with factitious honour or dignity.

6. Ease at the expense of duty.

7. Vengeance at the expense of justice.

15.

Ends of procedure.

  • I. Direct exclusion of
    • 1. Misdecision.
    • 2. Non-decision.
  • II. Indirect, or, say collateral exclusion of
    • 1. Delay (needless.)
    • 2. Expense (needless.)
    • 3. Vexation (needless.)

16.

“Preponderant.”—Constant use of this word, as applied to benefits in the account, as between good and evil, under the greatest happiness system. Without it, all statements as to good and evil, stand exposed to well-grounded denial.

17.

Proportion.—In the Rationale of Legislation, and in the penning of enactments, Bentham, the first writer, by whom this idea has been constantly kept in mind, and held up to view.