HIST 121 Chapter Notes - Chapter 19: Michel Foucault, Rationality, Human Conditions
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-- bentham is greatly influenced by the french enlightenment, especially thinkers like claude. Helvetius thinks that the best government should be able to guarantee the greatest happiness of the people. -- bentham is a legal reformist, and his theory focuses on reforming the governmental and legal systems of his time. And utilitarianism strangely influenced liberalism, although it has a very democratic inclination which liberalism fears. But utilitarianism is not so radical that it supports revolution or socialism, although utilitarians call themselves philosophical radicals . -- it is clear and simple: human beings only seek pleasure and avoid pain. -- and utility is what tends to augment the total sum of the happiness of the individuals that compose a society. -- so the purpose of a government should be the augmentation of public happiness. -- they are either metaphysical or unable to form a concrete foundation for morality or politics.
