A Fragment on Government
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors · 15 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~60,800 words · 289 passages
Cite this work
- APAJeremy Bentham. (n.d.). A Fragment on Government. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/jeremy-bentham/a-fragment-on-government
- MLAJeremy Bentham. "A Fragment on Government." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/jeremy-bentham/a-fragment-on-government.
- ChicagoJeremy Bentham. A Fragment on Government. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/jeremy-bentham/a-fragment-on-government.
What it is about
A Fragment on Government (1776): the book that made his name, published anonymously.
Context and history
A frontal attack on Blackstone's Commentaries, the bible of English law. Bentham argues that the fiction of an original contract explains nothing and that the only measure of a government is 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. All of legal utilitarianism starts here.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Southampton-Street in the Strand; and E. Bxooxs, in Bell-Yard, Temple-Bar, M.DCC.LXXVI, * Coe DOES, _ Al * PREFACE Motives of | the preſent feftion. In the natural world, in particular, every undertakinge TX age we live in is a buſy age; in which —— knowledge is rapidly advancing towards perthing teems with diſcovery and with improvement. The moſt diſtant and reconditexregions of the earth traverſed and explored—the all-vivifying and ſubtle element of the air ſo recently analyzed and made i known to us,—are ſtriking evidences, were all i 1 j others wanting, of this pleaſing truth, —_ | Correſpondent to diſcovery and improvement in the natural world, is reformation in the moral: it that which ſeems a common notion be, indeed, a true one, | that in the moral world there no longer remains any | matter for diſcovery. Perhaps, however, this may not be the caſe: perhaps among ſuch obſervations | as would be beſt calculated to ſerve as grounds for | reformation, are ſome which, being obſervations of | matters of fa& hitherto either incompletely noticed, | | or not at all, would, when produced, appear ca- | pable of bearing the name of diſcoveries : with ſo little method and preciſion have the conſequences | of | "A * Motives of the preſent undertaking. If to this endeavour we ſhould fancy any Author, * P R F of this fundamental axiom, it is the greateſt happineſs of the greaigſt number that is the meaſure of right and wrong, been as yet developped. Wo give that finiſh which I was able, and which I thought was neceſſary : and to publiſh it in this de- — — e e ö tached manner, as the firſt, if not the only part of a work, . o * We ATI 2 r A N r r 2 Cee pgs Ii ee work, the principal and remaining part of which may poſſibly ſee the light ſome time or other, under ſome ſuch title as that of 4 CoMMENT on the C COMMENT ARIES,” In the mean time that J may ſtand more fully - juſtified, or excuſed at leaſt, in an enterprize to moſt perhaps ſo
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