ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents a recapitulation of the interpretation of Bentham’s ontology of normativity set out in the preceding chapters. One can single out certain crucial theoretical aspects which characterize Bentham’s understanding of the guidance claim of practical elements: the working out of an ontological and epistemological fictionalist theory; the introduction of a linguistic or rational notion of existence and the acknowledgment of the existence-conferring ability of the human mind; the combination of empiricism and constructivism in the representation of the physical world and in the thinking of the practical realm; and the adoption of an internalist approach in ethics. The distinction between real and fictitious entities provided Bentham with the framework to outline the normative structure of law and then operate its reform. By putting forward his model of normativity as a fictitious construction of the human mind on the basis of the perceptions of pain and pleasure, Bentham contributed to the shaping of the early modern idea of obligation as a requirement of a self-governing moral agent’s thinking.
