« 12 February 2003 - 2:58 pm | Main | 13 February 2003 - 10:02 pm »

Jeremy Bentham, the noted 19th century philosopher, invented the word "international." He also invented the word "auto-icon." While you're probably familiar with "international," I doubt that your familiar with "auto-icon." This is a good thing. Auto-icons are dead bodies preserved as statues. In his essay "Auto-Icon, or the Uses of the Dead to the Living" he wrote

If a country gentleman has rows of trees leading to his dwelling, the auto-icons of his family might alternate with the trees; copal varnish would protect the face from the effects of rain.

No doubt you are thinking to yourself that Bentham was just a crazy old guy who went senile and started thinking about dead bodies as he was dying. But you have no clue just how crazy he was. If you visit University College in London, you can see Bentham's auto-icon. His skeleton is there, wearing his own clothes and holding his walking stick. He had originally intended his head to be there as well, but it decayed and was replaced by a wax replica. For many years the head sat between his feet in the icon, but, according to the legend, proved to be too great a target for college students, who often stole it.

The rumors that Bentham's auto-icon regularly attends meetings of the College Council, and that it is solemnly wheeled into the Council Room to take its place among the present-day members, where its presence is noted in the minutes by the notation "Jeremy Bentham - present but not voting" are untrue. However, it is apparently true that the auto-icon is wheeled out for utilitarian gatherings of Benthamites. (Bentham was the father of utilitarianism -- the idea that man has "a propensity toward pleasure and good and against pain and evil.")

Posted by on 12 February 2003 at 10:02 PM