Samuel Bailey (5 July 1791 – 18 January 1870) was a British philosopher, economist and writer. He was called the "

Bentham Bentham may refer to: * Bentham, Gloucestershire in Badgeworth * Bentham, North Yorkshire * Bentham (surname) * Bentham (''One Piece''), a character in Eiichiro Oda's manga ''One Piece'' * Bentham Grammar School, in North Yorkshire * Bentham Ho ...

Hallamshire Hallamshire (or Hallam) is the historical name for an area of South Yorkshire, England, approximating to the current City of Sheffield local government area. The origin of the name is uncertain. The English Place-Name Society describe "Halla ...

Life

Bailey was born at

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

on 5 July 1791, the son of Joseph Bailey and Mary Eadon. His father was among the first of those Sheffield

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...

s who went to the United States to establish trade connections. After a few years in his father's business, he retired from all business concerns with an ample fortune, although he remained connected with the Sheffield Banking Company, of which he was a founder in 1831 and served as chairman for many years. Although an ardent liberal, he took little part in political affairs. On two occasions, he stood for Sheffield as a " philosophic radical" parliamentary candidate, but without success. His life is for the most part a history of his numerous and varied publications. He died suddenly on 18 January 1870, leaving over £80,000 to the town

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...

s of Sheffield for public use.

Thought

His first work, ''Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions'', published anonymously in 1821, attracted more attention than any of his other writings. A sequel to it appeared in 1829, ''Essays on the Pursuit of Truth''. Between these two were ''Questions in Political Economy, Politics, Morals, &c.'' (1823), and a ''Critical Dissertation on the Nature, Measure, and Causes of Value'' (1825), directed against the opinions of

David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist. He was one of the most influential of the classical economists along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and James Mill. Ricardo was also a politician, an ...

and his school. His next publications also were on economic or political subjects, ''Rationale of Political Representation'' (1835), and ''Money and its Vicissitudes'' (1837) and he has been regarded as one of the main theorists of Free banking. About the same time, there also appeared some of his

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a f ...

s, ''Discussion of Parliamentary Reform'', ''Right of Primogeniture Examined'', ''Defence of Joint-Stock Banks''. In 1842 appeared his ''Review of Berkeley's Theory of Vision'' which called forth rejoinders from John Stuart Mill in the ''

Westminster Review The ''Westminster Review'' was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal u ...

'' and from

James Frederick Ferrier James Frederick Ferrier (16 June 1808 – 11 June 1864) was a Scottish metaphysical writer and philosopher. He introduced the word ''epistemology'' in philosophical English, as well as coining agnoiology for the study of ignorance. Education ...

in ''

Blackwood's Magazine ''Blackwood's Magazine'' was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine''. The first number appeared in April 18 ...

''. Bailey replied to his critics in a ''Letter to a Philosopher'' (1843), &c. In 1851 he published ''Theory of Reasoning'', a discussion of the nature of

inference Inferences are steps in reasoning, moving from premises to logical consequences; etymologically, the word '' infer'' means to "carry forward". Inference is theoretically traditionally divided into deduction and induction, a distinction that ...

, and an able criticism of the functions and value of the

syllogism A syllogism ( grc-gre, συλλογισμός, ''syllogismos'', 'conclusion, inference') is a kind of logical argument that applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true ...

. In 1852 he published ''Discourses on Various Subjects''; and finally summed up his philosophic views in the ''Letters on the Philosophy of the Human Mind'' (three series, 1855, 1858, 1863). The ''Letters'' contain a discussion of many of the principal problems in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

and ethics. Bailey can hardly be classed as belonging either to the strictly

empirical Empirical evidence for a proposition is evidence, i.e. what supports or counters this proposition, that is constituted by or accessible to sense experience or experimental procedure. Empirical evidence is of central importance to the sciences and ...

or to the

idealist In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to id ...

school, but his general tendency is towards the former. In regard to method, he founds

entirely on

introspection Introspection is the examination of one's own Consciousness, conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology, the process of introspection relies on the observation of one's Mental representation, mental state, while in a Spirituality, spiritual c ...

. He thus, to a certain extent, agrees with the Scottish School, but he differs from them in rejecting altogether the doctrine of mental faculties. What have been designated faculties are, upon his view, merely classified facts or phenomena of

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

. He criticizes very severely the habitual use of

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

ical language in describing mental operations. His doctrine of

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system, ...

, which is, in brief, that "the perception of external things through the organs of sense is a direct mental act or phenomenon of consciousness not susceptible of being resolved into anything else,"Bain, Alexander.''The Senses and the Intellect''. London: Parker & Son, 1855
Page 370
/ref> and the reality of which can be neither proved nor disproved, is not worked out in detail, but is supported by elaborate and sometimes subtle criticisms of all other theories. With regard to general and abstract

idea In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of be ...

s and general

proposition In logic and linguistics, a proposition is the meaning of a declarative sentence. In philosophy, "meaning" is understood to be a non-linguistic entity which is shared by all sentences with the same meaning. Equivalently, a proposition is the no ...

s, his opinions are those of the empirical school, but his analysis frequently puts the matter in a new light. In the theory of

morals Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of cond ...

, Bailey is an advocate of

utilitarianism In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charac ...

(though he objects to the term "utility" as being narrow and, to the unthinking, of sordid content), and works out with great skill the steps in the formation of the "complex"

mental fact Mental facts include such things as perceptions, feelings, and judgments. Mental facts are ultimately caused by physical facts, in that mental facts depend on physical and biological functions which are required for consciousness. The physical and b ...

s involved in the recognition of

duty A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; fro, deu, did, past participle of ''devoir''; la, debere, debitum, whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may ...

obligation An obligation is a course of action that someone is required to take, whether legal or moral. Obligations are constraints; they limit freedom. People who are under obligations may choose to freely act under obligations. Obligation exists when th ...

, right. He bases all moral phenomena on five facts: * Man is susceptible to

pleasure Pleasure refers to experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. It contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. It is closely related to value, desire and action: humans and other conscious anima ...

(and

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...

); * he likes (or dislikes) their causes; * he desires to reciprocate pleasure and pain received; * he expects such reciprocation from others; * he feels more or less sympathy with the same feelings in his fellows (cf. ''Letters'', 3rd series). In 1845 he published ''Maro'' a poem in four

canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from th ...

s (85 pp., Longmans), containing a description of a young poet who printed 1000 copies of his first poem, of which only 10 were sold. He was a diligent student of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, and his last literary work was ''On the Received Text of Shakespeare's Dramatic Writings and its Improvement'' (1862).

Works

* ''Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions'' (1821)
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**2nd edition, 1826
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Philadelphia, 1831
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**3rd edition, 1837
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Boston, 1854
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* ''Questions in Political Economy, Politics, Morals, Metaphysics, &c.'' (1823)
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* ''A Critical Dissertation on the Nature, Measures, and Causes of Value'' (1825)
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* ''A Letter to a Political Economist'' (1826). [Pamphlet, 101 pp.
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* ''Essays on the Pursuit of Truth, &c.'' (1829)
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Philadelphia, 1831
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**2nd edition, 1844
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* ''Discussion of Parliamentary Reform'' (1831). [Pamphlet, 55 pp.] * ''The Rationale of Political Representation'' (1835)
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* ''Right of Primogeniture Examined'' (1837). amphlet, 60 pp.* ''Money and Its Vicissitudes in Value'' (1837)
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* ''Defence of Joint-Stock Banks'' (1840). amphlet, 100 pp.* ''A Review of Berkeley's Theory of Vision'' (1842)
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* ''Letter to a Philosopher in Reply to Some Recent Attempts to Vindicate &c.'' (1843). amphlet, 68 pp.* ''Maro; or, Poetic irritability'' (1845)
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* ''The Theory of Reasoning'' (1851)
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2nd ed., 1852
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* ''Discourses on Various Subjects'' (1852)
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* ''Letters on the Philosophy of the Human Mind'' (1855–1863). ** First series, 1855
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** Second series, 1858
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** Third series, 1863
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* ''On the received text of Shakespeare's dramatic writings and its Improvement'' (1862–1866). 2 volumes. **Volume 1, 1862
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**Volume 2, 1866
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Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Samuel 1791 births 1870 deaths 19th-century British philosophers English philosophers English economists English political writers Writers from Sheffield