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Glite Dictionary
Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham

1 7.9
An English philosopher and lawyer who founded utilitarianism
  • proper noun
: Jeremy Bentham
  • Jeremy Bentham is widely considered the founder of modern utilitarian philosophy.

Examples

  • The legal reforms inspired by Jeremy Bentham had a profound impact on English law.

  • Many philosophers have debated the principles first formulated by Jeremy Bentham.

  • Jeremy Bentham was brilliant.

  • Jeremy Bentham lived in the 18th century.

  • Jeremy Bentham proposed that actions are right if they promote happiness for the greatest number.

  • The ideas of Jeremy Bentham on legal reforms are still studied in law schools today.

  • Jeremy Bentham advocated for a system of government that focused on the well-being of society.

Surface Forms

Jeremy Bentham main

Morphology

Jeremy + Bentham

This is a proper name; the constituents 'Jeremy' and 'Bentham' are personal-name elements that do not compose to yield the biographical/professional meaning. A B1 learner who knows the words as names would not be able to infer that this refers to an English philosopher and founder of utilitarianism, so understanding requires encyclopedic knowledge rather than compositional inference.

Etymology

Jeremy Bentham was an English thinker in the late 1700s who said we should judge laws and actions by how much happiness they bring, an idea called 'utilitarianism'. Think of him as a man who wanted to put pleasure and pain on a simple scale to measure what is best, and that's why his name is linked to the idea of making the most happiness for the most people.