People today often think of Utilitarianism as a cold and heartless economistic creed. It's time to rediscover the radical origins of Utilitarian ideas, which were a reaction against the exclusionary and hierarchical politics of the British status quo and the laws that defended it. Jeremy Bentham's motto, "Each to count for one, none for more than one" summoned his society to a radical rethinking of hierarchies of class, gender, sexual orientation, and even species. First introducing the main lines of Bentham's arguments and the related arguments of J. S. Mill, I will further explore four areas: (1) the Utilitarian attack on retributivism in the criminal law, and on both torture and the death penalty; (2) Mill's insistence on women's enfranchisement, equal education, and access to divorce; (3) Bentham's cogent arguments in favor of the decriminalization of same-sex sexual acts; and (4) the attack waged by both Bentham and Mill on the species barrier, and their related strong opposition to the cruel treatment of non-human animals. We have a lot to gain through renewed engagement with these arguments.
Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics. This Chicago's Best Ideas lecture was presented on April 3, 2018.
