Friday, August 28, 2015

Jeremy Bentham

Mrs. Quinet told us quite an interesting story today in class last period that I thought I would share with those who could not attend. To quickly describe him, Jeremy Bentham was the founder of modern utilitarianism. Long story short, it is said that his head was frequently stolen by students from Kings College in London as a "prank." The myth states that they used his kidnapped head for an "impromptu game of football in the college quadrangle." Today, the head is kept in "special environmental conditions" in the Institute of Archeology.  



3 comments:

Jac said...

That's crazy! And very interesting!! If that is his real head, how was it so well preserved? What is the significance of stealing his head and playing football with it!? Is stealing his head a utilitarian act? (That was a joke, of course it isn't. That doesn't benefit anyone.) SO UPSET I missed this fun story!

Unknown said...

This is so interesting. I would have loved to be in class and hear the full story. I would never throw a head around as a football!! I wonder what those boys were thinking! When did he die, because his head is very well preserved. I hope this story is retold Monday!

Cheyenne Dwyer said...

I'm glad you guys think this is interesting. But this still disturbs me to no end. Like that is an actual head, and its super gross looking and people are playing football with it??? Not only is that super creepy, but also super disrespectful to that poor headless man. Like there is just so much that could go wrong. What if one of his creepy eyeballs fell out, or they pulled out a chunk of his silky gray hair? Super disturbing. Even the ancient egyptians knew not to mess with the dead - in their case, mummies. Even Scooby Doo knew that was some creepy junk.