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Cool insight Rat!
When I think of Jeremy Bentham, I think of his Utilitarianism philosophy; that we should aim in all things for the "greatest good for the greatest number of people.
I think this philosophy ties in nicely to Lost and sounds like a good mandate for the Dharma initiative. More interestly however is how such a philosophy can be twisted in practice.
Let's say you find a cure that will cure hundreds of thousands, but it will kill hundreds. Utilitarianism (or at least a bastardized version of it) says to go ahead and make the sacrifice because a greater number of benificiaries means the greater good. It's all just numbers. You know, like 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42.
Bent Utilitarianism can justify political assasinations, pre-emptive wars, you name it.
It remains to be seen what truly motivates Widmore or the Others but obviously both have their own ideas as to what constitutes "the greater good" and how possesion of the Island can bring it to pass.
If you reduce society to numbers (
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Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life
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