Kant vs Bentham: The Corpse He Willed to Sit at Every Meeting

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IMMANUEL KANT vs JEREMY BENTHAM go head to head — and every jab is rooted in real history.

IMMANUEL KANT

Morality is not arithmetic, sir; a lie remains wrong even if it makes ten thousand people smile.

JEREMY BENTHAM

And your precious duty remains useless if it comforts no one—the question is always the sum of happiness against the sum of pain.

IMMANUEL KANT

Then you would butcher one innocent to please a mob; treat a man as a means and you have abandoned reason itself.

JEREMY BENTHAM

Better a living calculus than your frozen rulebook, Herr Professor—at least my body still shows up to argue, which is more than duty ever did for a corpse.

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