As a utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham related goodness or ethics to sensory happiness (pleasure and pain) in the tradition of Thomas Hobbes. He believed that social good was "the greatest happiness for the greatest number." This philosophy has democratic, even socialist, tendencies because it measures justice by the majority's material condition. In its time, it was considered very radical, as justice in 18th-century England was seen as defined by an aristocracy of superior knowledge and wealth. Bentham's materialist utilitarian thought defines good in terms of economic goods rather than cultural, intellectual, or spiritual values.

The practical reforms emerging from Bentham's philosophy included more humane penal institutions, parliamentary reform (universal suffrage, secret ballots, annual elections), and criminal procedure. Bentham was critical of the traditional English legal system of William Blackstone and of John Locke's natural rights philosophy. He called individual natural rights "simple nonsense" and imprescriptible right "nonsense upon stilts." By this, he attacked individual rights from God or Nature because for him democratic government was necessary to secure these rights. This follows the British tradition that individual rights are dependent on and limited by society, not contrary to or against society. Unlike Locke or the American view of "inalienable rights" from God, Bentham's emphasis on the community basis of rights leads to welfare state and socialist conceptions of individual rights granted by society (and potentially taken away by society).

For this reason, Bentham supported the French Revolution of 1789 (contrary to Edmund Burke), though he later criticized its excesses. Because of his endorsement of government-promoted equality, security, and economic welfare, Bentham is influential in the later concept of the welfare state, liberalism, and socialism.

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