Utilitarianism at Sea: Bentham

In 1884, Tom Dudley and a crew of three set sail on the fifty-foot yacht Mignonette from England to Sydney, Australia. The yacht foundered in the South Atlantic and the crew escaped in a small dinghy supplied with little more than two tins of turnips. Upon threat of starvation, the captain and mate conspired to kill and eat the cabin boy, Richard Parker.

Rescued four days later, the survivors were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In the face of public sympathy, they were reprieved after six months. Nevertheless, the resulting trial and criminal case, R v Dudley and Stephens, established a celebrated precedent throughout the common law world that necessity is not a defense against charges of murder. The case marked a culmination in a long history of attempts to outlaw the euphemistically-called "custom of the sea"--survival cannibalism--and demonstrated a dramatic collision between two worlds: that of Victorian judges and their parlour morality, and that of seamen confronted by brutal realities.

P.S. In a macabre coincidence, Edgar Allen Poe, nearly fifty years earlier in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, told the story of four shipwrecked survivors, one of whom succumbs to cannibalism by his shipmates: his name was also Richard Parker. Yann Martel would later exploit the connotations of the same name in Life of Pi (2001).

For this meetup, we will use the Mignonette as a case study to explore the philosophical principle of "the greatest good for the greatest many" and also ask the question: when is it right to break the law? The latter question is dramatically illustrated in Starbuck's confrontation of Ahab, especially in the chapter "The Musket."

We will read and discuss selections from Jeremy Bentham's Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1780), Chapters 1 through 4, and Theory of Legislation (1802), Chapters 10-12 (starting with "Analysis of Political Good and Evil"):

Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (chapters 1-4):

Liberty Fund: https://oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/oll3/store/titles/278/bentham_0175_EBk_v6.0.pdf

Librivox: https://librivox.org/an-introduction-to-the-principles-of-morals-and-legislation-by-jeremy-bentham/

Theory of Legislation (chapters 10-12):

Google books: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Theory_of_Legislation/6u0JAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Supplemental:

Regina v. Dudley & Stephens:
https://canestrinilex.com/en/readings/lifeboat-case-is-murder-allowed-by-necessity-queen-vs-dudley-and-stephens/

Sandel's lecture on utilitarianism: https://youtu.be/kBdfcR-8hEY?t=1477

Extracts:

"Though Jeremy Bentham's skeleton, which hangs for candelabra in the library of one of his executors, correctly conveys the idea of a burly-browed utilitarian old gentleman, with all Jeremy's other leading personal characteristics; yet nothing of this kind could be inferred from any leviathan's articulated bones." (M-D, 55)

"Well, should we set aside the more than disputable point whether for various reasons it was possible to anchor the fleet, then plausibly enough the Benthamites of war may urge the above. But the might-have-been is but boggy ground to build on." (Billy Budd)

"All garnish strenuous time refuse; / In peacocks’ tails put out the eyes! / Utility reigns—Ah, well-a-way!— / And bustles along in Bentham's shoes." ("Marquis de Grandvin at the Hostelry")

"'I stand alone here upon an open sea, with two oceans and a whole continent between me and law.—Aye, aye, 'tis so.— Is heaven a murderer when its lightning strikes a would-be murderer in his bed, tindering sheets and skin together?— And would I be a murderer, then, if'—and slowly, stealthily, and half sideways looking, he placed the loaded musket's end against the door." (M-D, 123)

This Meetup is part of a series on Cannibals and Kings.