'Nonsense On Stilts', Jeremy Bentham.

“nonsense on stilts” Jeremy Bentham

What did 18th Century British philosopher Jeremy Bentham mean when he said natural rights were “nonsense on stilts”.

He did believe in reform, humanitarianism and human welfare. And he believed in the notion of natural law, that all of this was derived from nature, God, etc. So why didn't he believe in natural rights then? And what would he believe if he were around now?

 

The kinds of "natural law" he was talking about were: (1) lex naturalis: the moralistic kind embraced by the ancient Stoics, Catholic theologians and various Christians today; and (2) natural rights of social contract theory, much in vogue by Enlightenment thinkers of his day in the U.S. and revolutionary France. Lex naturalis is the notion that we can infer what we ought to do by contemplating the order of nature. e.g., birds do it, bees do it and have babies. Therefore, sex that can't lead to reproduction (gays, birth control, etc.) is wrong. Bentham was a hedonist, who thought that maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain for the greatest number of people was the definition of good--regardless of what the birds and bees might be doing. Natural rights of social contract theory presupposse a contractarian ethic in which rights are derived from what humans supposedly agreed to, or would agree to, in a hypothetical State of Nature--as preconditions for granting authority to governments. Hobbes thought this was the right to life; Locke thought it was life, liberty and property. Jefferson added the "pursuit of happiness", etc. Bentham regarded all this as fiction and "nonsense on stilts."