Legislative theory

Author: [UK] Jeremy Bentham
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: In this book, Bentham defines happiness in a way similar to how Kant defines enlightenment, by defining it as a subjective state. When Bentham discusses slavery, he mentions that many people consider their childhood as the happiest time of their lives. But what makes them feel particularly happy? He argues that it is not external things, but a fullness of the mind, a fullness that makes all children feel a strange, heartfelt, and irrepressible joy when they are with their peers, contrasting with the loneliness and severity at home with their parents. This makes us think that there have also been similar periods of fullness in human history, where people grew impatient with their conventional lives and cast their gaze toward a distant future, formulating various almost unfeasible plans. In the buildings, institutions, writings, legends, and other works they left behind, we see the shadows of those full minds.