Jeremy Bentham and the United Nations - 3154 Words

Jeremy Bentham and the United Nations: Jeremy Bentham is generally considered the father of Utilitarianism. As a doctrine that seeks to maximize pleasure and minimize pain, Utilitarian thinkers, including Bentham, would approve of any organization or set of practices that have the tendency to do so. The United Nations is such an organization. Bentham firmly believed world governance was possible, at least under his utilitarian system (Pitts 212). â€Å"The community is a fictitious body, composed of the individual persons who are considered as constituting as it were its members,† (Bentham 1823, 586). In this quote Bentham refers to how single communities are merely collections of individuals. Since the distinctions between individuals are arbitrary the only objective grouping of people is to include the entire world population. As Bentham saw borders as imagined, he would approve of the coming together of humanity that the United Nations fosters. With its border-crossi ng initiatives of conflict resolution and humanitarian aid, the United Nations is a source of good in the modern world and one that Bentham would endorse if he were here to do so, albeit with some concerns and recommendations. The United Nations’ primary goal stated in Article One, Section One of the organization’s charter is â€Å"[t]o maintain international peace and security†. So far as the United Nations achieves this goal, Bentham would be in complete approval as war and conflict are great causes of humanShow MoreRelatedWhat Is Liberty?1383 Words   |  6 Pagestwo parallel thoughts that ultimately lead to the same rhetoric. But, they are complete rivals politically, and philosophically. Within the two aspects you have several different philosophers and their contrasting views that follow. From Locke to Bentham and Mill these philosophers explain that there are many interpretations of what liberty is, and could be. When looking at history in retrospect the word liberty can almost be pinned to every event in some fashion. But, before you can understandRead MoreThe Death Penalty Should Not Be Legal Punishment2176 Words   |  9 Pagesof these in China (1076), Iran (165), Saudi Arabia (103), and then the United States (98)† (NAAS, 43). The death penalty is currently an intense debate involving the idea of whether or not we as people should be able to sentence another person to death. According to the ethical and moral reasoning of the philosophers Jeremy Bentham, Peter Singer, and Hugo Bedau, the death penalty should not be a legal punishment. Jeremy Bentham lived from 1748-1832 and during his lifetime addressed the death penaltyRead MoreEssay on Varying Ideas on What Makes a Just Society1147 Words   |  5 Pagesthe government controls fairly and appropriately. The two main positions that philosophers believe are resources in society should be distributed to obtain common good and live life as long as you do not infringe on others. The laws and rules the United States government currently has in place today often originate from these philosophers ideas and work to maintain a just society. The definition of a just society can be described as a society with equality and solidarity where everyone is treatedRead MoreUtilitarianism in Government1653 Words   |  7 Pagespromote happiness, wrong as it tends to diminish it, for the party whose interests are in question† (Bentham, 1780). To discover what we should do in a given situation, we identify the various courses of action that we could take, then determine any f oreseeable benefits and harms to all affected by the ramifications of our decision. In fact, some of the early pioneers of utilitarianism, such as Bentham and Mill, campaigned for equality in terms of womens suffrage, decriminalization of homosexualityRead MoreThe Privacy Of An Individual1700 Words   |  7 Pagespolitical theorist Jeremy Bentham once idealized a theory pertaining to an effective and democratic form of government, declaring that, â€Å"it is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.† The privacy of an individual is at its most a fundamental right to which one is entitled. Furthermore, the infringement of an individual’s privacy is rarely justified to any extent, even under circumstances with the purpose of protecting a nation because it deprivesRead MoreEssay about International Laws766 Words   |  4 PagesFirst coined by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, international law is customarily recognize d as the law that regulates the affairs between sovereign states, the foremost issue of international law. Public international law only concerns itself with the issues of rights involving a number of nations, or nations and its people, or matters of other nations. It differs from private international law, which deals with dissimilarity between private individuals, natural and/or juridical, by developingRead MoreZafiya Shamim UU2001547 Words   |  7 Pageshaving an extramarital affair to name a few. These expressions try to defend adultery as being guilt-free. However, some social conservatives are fighting for what they view as a serious article of faith for example criminal adultery laws. In the United States of America, in the 2010, people were still being prosecuted for breaching their marital vows. The laws were some of the last remnants of their puritanical past, in which adultery was treated as a criminal matter and not only a marital affairRead MoreProblem of Animal Abuse1017 Words   |  5 PagesPeople make cats blind, castrate them and pulverize their sense of smell. They cut their sexual organ’s nerves in order to check how they acquit in the sexual aspect. †¢ The animals vocal cords have been annihilate so they cannot scream. †¢ Just in the United States, 64,000,000 of these animals die annually in medical experiments. Do animals feel pain? Can other animals feel what humans do, which characteristics about pain we share? However, it is clear that animals and humans have resemblance, specificallyRead MoreIn Vitro Meat1102 Words   |  5 Pagesthey think of the sad commercials, or peta. Well there is more to it than that. There are tens of thousands of animal rights activists and organizations around the world, though relatively few are major players. Why is this? Why is it that we as a nation, heck even as a community will stand up for everything and anything except animals? They have feelings too, even if they can not show them like humans can, they still have them. They love, they mourn the loss of the ones they have known for a longRead MoreThe War Of The Golden Stool887 Words   |  4 Pagescountries at the time such as the start of the United States could revolt over a superpower like Great Britain. This important to understand because of the transition of power that we may see in our near future. As China starts to rise through the ladder of power and influence, this may bring a major challen ger to the field. By rising pass the United States, it is a possibility that China could fill the role of the next hegemonic nation. Even though the United States seems to have a firm grasp on the