JB in his early years

The subject of today’s blog is Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832). What? You’ve never heard of Jeremy Bentham? Why, he was an English moral and political philosopher, influenced by Locke and Hume, and the acknowledged “Father of Utilitarianism.” Among his followers were John Stuart Mill and other legal theorists and Consequentialists.

I see you suppressing that yawn.

Well JB had a devilish side. His dying request was that an auto-icon be made out of his dead body.

What? You don’t know what an auto-icon is? Why, it’s a cabinet that holds a mummified human body, as far as I can determine. Here’s a picture of his:

JB in his auto-icon
Photo by Michael Reeve, MykReeve at the English language Wikipedia

JB’s preserved skeleton has been fluffed out with stuffing and dressed in his own clothes. Also that’s not his real head; it’s a wax version. His disciple, Doctor Thomas Southwood Smith, who was assigned the task of preserving JB’s remains, tried a “new” way of mummifying the head, following a technique practiced by New Zealand Maoris. But the method went horribly wrong and the face, well, let’s leave it that they decided to make a new one out of wax. But evidently it’s his real hair. His cabinet was moved to University College in London in 1850, and it’s been a source of curiousity and student pranks ever since.

You can click here for a 360-degree, rotating picture of JB. It’s cool, although I get pretty carsick looking at him spin.

Sources: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/bentham/

University College London: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/who/autoicon