Today's soundtrack is Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Goodbye Cruel World. This afternoon, I'm reading the next chapter of This Book Will Make You Think, "Bentham." Jeremy Bentham belonged to the philosophical school of utilarianism, which examines the morality of man's actions. Bentham believed that actions which served as "promoting happiness and relieving suffering and pain" (p. 20). He believed that the more people an action benefited, the better of a choice it was. His beliefs led him to hold such counter-cultural views as "support for the abolition of slavery, the repeal of the death penalty, and equal rights for women" (p. 20). Late in his life, he modified his beliefs to say that the most moral action is not that which benefits the most people, but the action that benefits the most people who are comparatively disadvantaged.
