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Jeremy Bentham State Of Nature

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Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832) (Sweet, n.d.) outlines that Bentham was an English political reformer, known as the father of Utilitarianism which means “the greatest good/happiness for the greatest number.”
Major Works
(Crimmins, 2015) examined the political views of Bentham and identified two of his major works:
1. A fragment on Government (1776) – in which he disagrees with natural rights.
2. Principles of Morals and Legislation (1780) – which focuses on the principle of utility and how this view of morality ties into legislative practice. This body of work is also based on the assumption that individuals seek pleasure and avoids pain; and forms a guide to moral decision-making.
State of Nature and Social Contract
According to (Philosimply, …show more content…

The social contract theory explains that society was based on a “social contract” which involved people agreeing to give up some of their individual freedoms in order to live together under a system of laws and government. By accepting this social contract, man left the state of nature and entered political society. It has also been highlighted that governments do not get established on the basis of a social contract, but arise by either habit or force. Bentham therefore wished to overcome the theory of a social contract, in order to establish society and its laws on observable realities and utilitarian …show more content…

He explained that there was no time when people did not exist within a society and did not have some kind of restrictions imposed on them (also adding that natural rights inspired violence). He further adds that the only rights that really exist are legal rights, because they are protected by the law. Without law, there are therefore no rights, only “reasons for wishing there were such things as rights.”
He defined law as simply a command expressing the will of a sovereign, and rights as created by law, noting that laws and rights could not exist without government to enforce them.
Power and Sovereignty
Legal Sovereignty vs. Political Sovereignty. Legal sovereignty is the authority of the state which has the legal power to issue final commands, whilst political or popular sovereignty relates to the power of the people to limit or control government and public officials. For example: the Jamaican Parliament is a bicameral body, in that, the Senate has legal sovereignty whilst the House of Representatives has political sovereignty.
Bentham explains that mankind is governed by two sovereign masters: pain and pleasure; a social relationship has nothing to do with the type of person you are, but pleasure and pain affect your standards of right and

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