JB/104/131/001

Click Here To Edit

6 Nov 1810 + 10
Fallacies

☞ Rudiments not to be copied

Ch. Authority worshippers
§.3. Exposition continued
Authority mischievous

1

1. Authority the arch enemy of utility and Reason

2. It is the leaning stick of the weak: the grand engine of the
wicked.

3. Reference to it is never in any instance necessary: — beneficial,
is otherwise than pernicious.

3. Were general utility, in the character of the end of government,
referred to on every occasion, a separation would thus
be made between those institutions which are useful to the
whole number or the many, and those that being useful
only to the few, are pernicious to the many.

4. By referring to authority as the standard this separation
is avoided.

All Every abuse
that ever was established
had authority for its
support

5. In the case therefore of those institutions which are really conducive
to the general good those who have an interest in
the support of abuses avoid referring that ground of justification
which is made by shewing conduciveness to
the common end: in justification of them they employ the
plea of authority and that alone. Why? because authority
serves as well for a justification of the abuse of which
they have the whole profit to themselves or of the good points
or the benefit of which is shared by the the whole community are sharers.
in[+]
[+] Authority is therefore a
ground on which no institution
whatsoever however
beneficial or necessary
might to be left to rest.
Because which the number
the in number of and the beneficent
institutions are there are
left to rest upon it, the
greater the reliance that
men continue to place
upon this trustworthiness
support by which the
most mischievous
institutions are as officially
supported as the
most beneficial ones

By From reason such institutions alone can derive support
as are conducive to general utility. From authority all
institutions whatsoever that are in existence derive support —
equal support — together: the most pernicious and the most
beneficial: those pernicious ones which but from authority
would be unsupported and unsupportable.

Means taken by the profiters from abuses to increase the
subjection to authority. Imputation of rashness, of presumption
and self-conceitedness in those who pos take upon
themselves to appeal to reason

Had the same regard deference been paid to authority by our forefathers
which men in power their utmost to engage us
to pay to it at present, the information on religion, such as it is would never
have been effected. It was by trampling upon the idol, and
not by lying prostrate at the feet of it, that the reformation
was effected.

Hypocrisy — weakness — both in a degree sufficient to render unfit a
a man fit unfit to bear a part in government — those are the two attributes
between which the supporters of authority against reason .

p
Were but this idol burnt
as idols used to be burnt
the would be dep
the common be bandage
bound about mens eyes by
lawyers would drop off.
The Common Law their work
would be seen to be from first
to last from top to bottom a
compound of wickedness and
absurdity: both of the grossest
kind: wickedness the end, absurdity the reason.

Authority is the idol
before which all lawyers
are continually on their
knees, continually endeavouring
to drag others down
into the same posture —
the Pope was never a mere
hypocrite than
all lawyers are.

1
Authority — its influence
mischievous — inimical
to that of Reason
Reason, referring all
measures to their proper
end, distinguishes the
repugnant from the
conducive: Authority
confounds both under
the common protection:
thereby protecting whatever
is most mischievous.
No abuse
but has had authority for
its support.

2
The worse the
abuse the stronger the
interest which those who
profit by it have
in the worship
of authority as
and blind as
possible.

3
Means employed
to increase the subjection
to authority: the
to the use of
reason

4
Lawyers the men
who deriving most profit
from abuse, have most
interest in preaching
authority-worship, and
preach it with most zeal

Identifier: | JB/104/131/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 104.
Date_1	1810-11-06	Marginal Summary Numbering	1-4
Box	104	Main Headings	fallacies
Folio number	131	Info in main headings field	fallacies
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	d10 / e1
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public	"rudiments not to be copied"	ID Number	34102
Box Contents