An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

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An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislations is Jeremy Bentham's best-known work, and contains the statements of the foundations of utilitarian philosophy and a pioneering study of crime and punishment. Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism. He is best known for his advocacy of utilitarianism and animal rights, and the idea of the panopticon. His position included arguments in favor of individual and economic freedom, usury, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, the right to divorce, and other social issues. Although he strongly favored the extension of individual legal rights, he opposed the idea of natural law and natural rights, calling them "nonsense upon stilts." Bentham's ambition was to create a "Pannomion", a complete utilitarian code of law. Bentham not only proposed many legal and social reforms, but also expounded an underlying moral principle on which they should be based. This utilitarianism philosophy argued that the right act or policy was that which would cause "the greatest good for the greatest number of people", also known as "the greatest happiness principle", or the principle of utility.