Thinking Citizen Blog — Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) “Spiritual Founder” of University College London
Thinking Citizen Blog — Friday is Education and Education Policy Day
Today’s Topic — Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) “Spiritual Founder” of University College (London)
This is a follow up to last week’s post on “King’s College, University College, and the “Red Brick Universities.” Doing research for that post, I came upon a reference to Jeremy Bentham as the “spiritual founder” of University College and I decided to refresh my memory — who was this guy? What did he say worth remembering other than “It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”? Any random facts worth sharing? Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
HOW TO SPEND EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE, THE FLOWERS AT YOUR FEET, ESTABLISHED RELIGION
1. “Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you, — will invite you to add something to the pleasure of others, — or to diminish something of their pains.”
2. “Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet. ”
3. “in no instance has a system in regard to religion been ever established, but for the purpose, as well as with the effect of its being made an instrument of intimidation, corruption, and delusion, for the support of depredation and oppression in the hands of governments.”
NB: “Happiness is a very pretty thing to feel, but very dry to talk about.”
LAW, MOVING THE EARTH, THE ROAD TO POWER
1. “Every law is an infraction of liberty.”
2. “Is it possible for a man to move the earth? Yes; but he must first find out another earth to stand upon.”
3. “Reputation is the road to power.”
NB: “Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.”
BENTHAM WAS AHEAD OF HIS TIME ON SLAVERY, WOMEN’S RIGHTS, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, CORPORAL PUNISHMENT, ANIMAL RIGHTS
1. But the coolest thing about Jeremy is that his body is preserved as an “auto icon” (his wishes) and is visible to students at University College, 24/7, 365 days a year in the Student Centre! Now how cool is that?
2. “Bentham had requested that his real head be part of the Auto-icon, but the results of the attempt to preserve it were decidedly unattractive. Instead, Smith commissioned Dr Jacques Talrich, a physician turned producer of anatomical models, to produce a wax head. Bentham’s real head remains stored in safe conditions at University College London (UCL) and his Auto-icon has been in UCL’s possession since 1850.”
3. “Bentham was the inventor of many words you hear today in the board room. Maximize, manageability, monetary, percentage, secretarial to name a few…”
NB: “Bentham may have been the earliest jogger — or, as he put it, ‘circumgyrater’. According to the journalist George Wheatley, who stayed with the 81 year old Bentham in 1831, before both breakfast and dinner Bentham would take ‘a few turns in the garden’.”
FOOTNOTE — the severed head of Jeremy Bentham is on display but not as part of the “Auto icon” (see fourth link below for details)
1. “Bentham had several infatuations with women, wrote on sex. He never married.”
2. “A psychobiographical study by Philip Lucas and Anne Sheeran argues that he may have had Asperger’s syndrome. Bentham was an atheist.”
3. “Bentham’s daily pattern was to rise at 6 am, walk for 2 hours or more, and then work until 4 pm.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/59867.Jeremy_Bentham
From utilitarian to Auto-icon: The strange journey of Jeremy Bentham
THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY ARE AVAILABLE HERE:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, 11/17/20
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to education or education policy. Or the coolest thought however half-baked you had. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to education or education policy that the rest of us may have missed. Or just some random education-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something that is dear to your heart.
