RickLewis wrote:With regard to Jeremy Bentham having his body put on permanent display, I just wanted to mention that in Philosophy Now Issue 96 (ie the May/June 2013 issue, appearing in a couple of months from now) we will be publishing an article by Tim Madigan which explains exactly why Bentham wanted to do that. It makes a lot of sense so I really expect Tim is right about Bentham's motivation. However, I'm not going to spoil the surprise.
Will he tell us where his real head went?
A philosopher, who is a materialist, should not care about Bentham's head. The head is just a material object like millions of other material objects. Bentham's head and Hugo's body are no longer relevant.
materialism
Belief that only physical things truly exist. Materialists claim (or promise) to explain every apparent instance of a mental phenomenon as a feature of some physical object. Prominent materialists in Western thought include the classical atomists, Hobbes, and La Mettrie.
tbieter wrote:A philosopher, who is a materialist, should not care about Bentham's head. The head is just a material object like millions of other material objects. Bentham's head and Hugo's body are no longer relevant.
materialism
Belief that only physical things truly exist. Materialists claim (or promise) to explain every apparent instance of a mental phenomenon as a feature of some physical object. Prominent materialists in Western thought include the classical atomists, Hobbes, and La Mettrie.
How so Tom? If I was a Materialist then why should that imply that I don't consider all those millions of existent objects highly relevant. In fact I'd have thought it would exactly entail that whereas if I believed there was an immaterial, non corporeal existence over and above the material then would I not consider the material somewhat irrelevant?
Still interested in where his real head went as I thought it used to be on display between his feet.
I've heard that Bentham's head is now kept in a safe somewhere in University College. It was formerly on display between his feet, as you said, but students from King's College stole it a couple of times so the college decided to move it somewhere safer.
