I've done a little more reading on Bentham, and found that he was not
really an economist (whew!!). Rather, he was what you would call a
"moral philosopher" (is there such a thing as an "immoral
philosopher"?). As such he developed the concept that man seeks to
maximize his pleasure and minimize his pain, and is not in the least
altruistic - i.e., each individual thinks only of himself. This idea
became the bedrock of classical economics, which restated it as enlightened
self-interest and maximizing the satisfaction of wants (utility) at the least
possible cost.
Bentham was also the inventor of the "Panopticon", a type of prison where
all prisoners would be observable by (unseen) guards at all times. He
tried to peddle this idea to Catherine the Great in Russia, but even she
wouldn't buy it. Some time ago, in an attempt to educate myself, I read
the French philosopher Michel Foucault. I recall that he compared the
modern state to a panopticon.
Ed
Ed Weick
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