Jeremy bentham and the spirit of bentham and fragment of government and 1776

Whenever I read an author these days, I am concerned not simply to pick up his/her ideas or the flow of thought but, most of all, to understand the "spirit" of the author. We carry our spirit with us, as it were, and it informs all that we do. To understand the spirit of a person enables you to commune directly with them; and, ironically, it sometimes makes it not so necessary to read everything that they say. Thus, by reading a little and capturing the spirit of someone, you are spared from reading a lot (unless, of course, you are so taken by what you find in the person that you simply have to lap up whatever s/he says!).

Jeremy Bentham is one of those authors whose spirit is evident in the first sentence that he penned for publication. "The age we live in is a busy age; in which knowledge is rapidly advancing towards perfection" (Preface to FG). What kind of person speaks like this? It is a person who wants to gain knowledge, who wants to move rapidly, who wants to attain perfection. Bentham was 28 years old when he wrote this piece, and he wrote it in that most momentous of years (1776) which also saw the publication of monumental works (Declaration of Independence; Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; The Wealth of Nations). He was living in a time where it seemed like new learning was spewing forth from all kinds of channels all around him. This new learning both challenged and tried to codify received wisdom.

Bentham wanted to be in the vanguard of the progressive revolution in thought that was sweeping Europe and America at the time. Indeed, so optimistic were some of the leading theoreticians of the French Revolution (which would take place 13 years after publication of FG) that they even talked about achieving some kind of "perfection" of society in the future. Heady optimism, fueled by incredible energy and focused passion, then, would characterize the work of Jeremy Bentham. And, one other thing. He knew he was right. He had the confidence, or arrogance, to believe that the spirit of the new age rested in him. He would articulate the new philosophy, launch the criticisms of the inherited systems (Blackstone, especially) and push for specific legislative reforms that would "improve" the legal and political system so that "perfection" could be achieved.

One thing that often accompanies tremendous ambition and intellectual firepower, however, is an approach to language that also is unique. Complex or new language becomes the tool for the expression of ideas struggling to come to birth. Bentham manifests this tendency in spades. But Bentham isn't alone in this. I was struck in reading the early writings of John Dewey, probably America's most significant philosophers of the early 20th century, that he seemed to want to express so much in his words that his sentences became almost tangled beyond recognition. Bentham not only has a unique style of writing; he coins many new words. And, to be added quickly is the point that lots of his new coinages were "unsuccessful"; i.e., they never really caught on. But that isn't the point. The point is that existing language is not supple enough to contain the bursting emotion and racing intellect which has to speak to the ills of the age.

Speaking our Own Language

Before going into ways that Bentham actually uses the English language (alas, another essay will be required), I would like to conclude by saying that not only do brilliant or inventive people often develop their own language, but linguists now have a word (since 1948) to describe every person's unique langauge. It is idiolect. This quotation from 1953 gives us an indication of what it means: "Indeed each member of a speech community may be said to possess his own idiolect, his own personal variety of the language system." Another definition from 1953 reads: "Hockett defined 'idiolect' as the individual's total repertory of speech habits over a short period of time." The fact that someone like Jeremy Bentham invented tons of words ought not to obscure the fact that each of us speaks the language in a different way. We have our own pet phrases; our ways of explaining things; our special vocabulary. The reason I argued elsewhere that all of us need our own IEP (Individual Education Plan) is that not only does each of us learn differently but each of us also speaks differently.

Bentham's Words

So, what are some of the words which will occupy me in the next essay? Well, they are condivident and codification, parergon (which Bentham describes as a work of supererogation) and excentric, maximize and minimize, international and expiree, pisteutics and post-prandial vibration. And then, for good measure, I might just throw in some non-Benthamite words to show how language grows and is only limited by the imagination of us, its users.

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