Language, Invention, and Imagination:

A Study on Bentham's Methodology of Sciences

Abstract

So far most Bentham scholars have failed to pay enough attention to the fact that Bentham tried to address the problem of methodology of sciences in his Logic,of which the theory of language constituted a sort of philosophical foundation. In consequence, the most distinctive feature of his methodology of sciences has not been brought to light sufficiently. This paper, thus, is an attempt to clarify this feature, which I call ‘the reorganization of the structure of reality through inventing new ideas’, by examining his Logic. In that process, I challenge the received view that attributes both foundationalist and reductionistic theory of knowledge to Bentham. In contrast, it is argued that his theory of knowledge upon which his methodology of sciences rests is radically pragmatic.