Jeremy Bentham is most well known as the founder of utilitarianism, a theory of morality that determines the rightness of acts by the consequences of those acts. Bentham's work in the areas of legal philosophy, penal reform and criminology sought to apply his philosophical principles to the English legal system and other social institutions. Bentham sought to codify the English common law and developed the Panopticon, a system for prison reform.

Jeremy Bentham was born on February 15, 1748, to Alicia Grove Whitehorne and Jeremiah Bentham, a London attorney. He began studying Latin at the age of three and attending Westminster School at seven. At twelve, he entered Queen's College, Oxford, and was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1764. He began to prepare for a career as a barrister by entering Lincoln's Inn and attending the Court of King's Bench beginning in 1763, was awarded a master's degree at Oxford in 1767, and...