About this episode
This lecture discusses key ideas from the Utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham's work, Offenses Against Oneself, a posthumously published part of his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation.
Here we examine some of the problems that arise out of punishing same-sex relationships using what Bentham calls the "political sanction", i.e. legislation and enforcement.. One of these, which Bentham thinks is a rather weak argument, is that this tends to make more people aware of the perceived offense and give them the idea that it must be pleasurable, since it is being punished. He also raises the likelihood of false or malicious prosecutions, which require only that someone make claims to have seen two men together, and views this as a significant problem. A third problem is that this also makes men liable to extortion or blackmail.
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