Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper attempts to understand the reception of Jeremy Bentham ideas in Brazil. The main focus is to analyze his influence on the constitution of first Brazilian criminal code and on the social context that has created the conditions for the adoption of his ideas. One characteristic stressed in the paper is the affinity between the concept of law constructed by Jeremy Bentham and Brazilian political culture. Law, according to Bentham, was conceived as a rational command that could reorganize completely society. This kind of discourse considered Law as the great architect of social order. This feature was very closed to Brazilian Culture and the adoption of a modern Criminal Code was seen as an efficient instrument to build a non-authoritarian society.
However, the initiative to reform society by law was not successful because the Code purposes were not embedded in social reality. Another contradiction was the adoption of utilitarian principles of Law and the slavery’s legal legitimization. The paper deconstructs the legal discourses related to the Code and stresses a trace in the Brazilian political culture, in which Law is seen as the great architect of social changes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: According to the traditional enlightened account of modern secular institutions from Hume to Freud and in much contemporary political theory, those instituions are notable primarily for having eliminated the influence of religious beliefs, which can now be considered as harmful (or at best useless) illusions. But the work of Jeremy Bentham provides another trajectory for thinking about the history and structure of modern tolerant governments. In his thinking, government could be tolerant not because it simply rejected the power of religious beliefs but because it sought to organize their adherents in new ways. From his "Panopticon" to "Chrestomathia," the virtue of cooperative communal structures was that they permitted persons to retain their beliefs but participate with each other in new interactions; institutions of employment, instruction, and so on, would function as the means through which individuals with diverse beliefs would attain unprecedented recognition and visibility.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: An unresolved debate in Bentham scholarship concerns the question of the timing and circumstances which led to Bentham's 'conversion' to democracy, and thus to political radicalism. Given the importance of Bentham's thought in the history of radical politics in the nineteenth century-in Britain, Europe, and indeed elsewhere-the question of the inspiration for Bentham's own political radicalism is of more than biographical significance.
It is not disputed that in the early stages of the French Revolution, roughly from 1788 to 1792, Bentham composed material which appeared to justify equality of suffrage on utilitarian grounds. Most commentators, however, claim that the early period of the French Revolution was not the decisive moment in the development of Bentham's thought, though there are differing interpretations concerning the extent and depth of Bentham's commitment to democracy at this time. They agree that Bentham was initially attracted to democratic reform, in both France and Britain, but that from 1792, like many other members of his social class, he became afraid of the increasing disorder and violence within France. Not only did he reject popular government, he also came to oppose reform of the British Constitution. Apart from this brief flirtation with democratic politics, Bentham's real 'conversion' to radicalism occurred in 1808 or 1809. In contrast, Mary Mack argues that Bentham became intellectually committed to the cause of democracy in 1790. Following the Terror in the autumn of 1792 and the outbreak of war with Britain in early 1793, Bentham became politically quiescent, turning his attention to other projects. When he again began to compose material on parliamentary reform in 1809, he was expressing convictions which he had long held.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Although the position of fallibilist arguments in utilitarian thought has been widely explored through the work of J.S. Mill, the role of fallibilism in Bentham’s work has been neglected, likely due in part to H.L.A. Hart’s view that it was in this context that Bentham’s “limitations as a philosopher” became clear. Yet fallibilism occupies a foundational position in Bentham’s thought: it derives from his theory of logic and language and it shapes both his religious and political thought. Moreover, the critique of infallibility in his political works, particularly in his linkage of infallibility with immutability, is a manifestation of the anti-absolutist character of Bentham’s radicalism. The appeal to fallibilism in Bentham’s legal writings provides evidence for the claim that Bentham desired a relatively flexible legal system and was skeptical about the potential of a legal code to achieve perfection. In this way, it contributes to a view of Bentham that does not rely on an omniscient legislator, which in turn supports the “democratic,” as opposed to the “authoritarian,” interpretive tradition of Bentham’s work. Attention to fallibilism also suggests the potential for a new line of inquiry into the connections between the work of Bentham and J.S. Mill.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: An examination of the relationship between Bentham's views on monarchy and democracy in the development of his political thought, arguing that his changing views on the role of monarch played a defining role in shaping his later republicanism.