The Philosopher Who Would Not Be Buried : Bentham’s Ideas--and Body--Live On

Some of Britain’s greatest philosophers gathered recently to honor Jeremy Bentham, founder of the International Bentham Society. Bentham attended in person, although he died 154 years ago.

“Bentham’s not inconsiderable vanity would have been pleased, if not satiated” by the turnout, said Bentham scholar and editor Prof. James H. Burns.

Bentham, an 18th-Century English utilitarian philosopher, specified in his will that his head should be embalmed and placed atop his skeleton, which was to be clothed in his own black suit and seated in a glass case “in the attitude in which I am sitting when engaged in thought.”

Thus since 1850, Bentham has been sitting, almost as in life, in a central entrance hallway of University College, which his followers helped establish as London’s first university.

‘Present, but Not Voting’

Bentham--or his “auto-icon”--even attended annual faculty meetings. The minutes recorded him as “present, but not voting.”

“I believe they gave that up 15 or 20 years ago because they were afraid it was causing too much wear and tear,” said Stephen Guest, secretary of the Bentham Committee and the Bentham Club at the college’s Bentham House.

Known as the founder of the “greatest good for the greatest number” school of philosophy, Bentham was a prolific and wide-ranging writer whose ideas profoundly anticipated present-day political institutions.

“Bentham is perhaps the most important philosopher in terms of the impact of his ideas on our society today,” Guest said.

Refused to Be Buried

“He gave us such wide-ranging ideas as the principle of general welfare, legal codification, legislative and penal reform.” He is even credited with inventing words like “international,” “codify” and “minimize” which are central to our current political jargon.

But he refused to be buried.

Instead his will laid out specific details of how his body should be preserved in what he called his “auto-icon.” His intention was that his body should somehow inspire the meetings of followers of his philosophy.

“My executor will from time to time cause to be conveyed into the room in which they meet the said Box or case with the contents, there to be stationed in such part of the room as to the assembled company shall seem meet,” his will said.

Affects Appetites

Guest admits that its presence is not always considered appropriate.

“Some people prefer to avoid dinners in the presence of the auto-icon,” he said. “They find it has a distinctly adverse affect on their appetites.”

The embalming of Bentham’s head was not considered a success, and his skull was replaced by a wax head. It wears Bentham’s wide-brimmed straw hat.

Thus Bentham’s body sat there through the recent celebration of the Bentham Society’s founding, attended by such philosophy luminaries as Prof. Sir Alfred Ayer and the Oxford legal positivist H.L.A. Hart.

No Disciples

“I’m not sure he (Bentham) ever had any disciples and today I am quite sure he has none,” Burns said. He carefully distinguished between Benthamites, who idolized Bentham in earlier times, and Benthamists, who study him today.

Burns said the Bentham Club was designed to further advance Bentham scholarship and promote the publication of 26 volumes of the philosopher’s works that have never been published, he said.

Even though Bentham got his way with his own body, his original vision has not been fulfilled.

A year before his 1832 death, Bentham wrote a treatise on “Auto-Icon, or Farther Uses of the Dead to the Living” in which he anticipated halls filled with the embalmed bodies of famous and distinguished people.