A Fragment on Government
E91447
A Fragment on Government is an influential 1776 political treatise by Jeremy Bentham that critiques William Blackstone’s Commentaries and lays early foundations for utilitarian legal and political theory.
Aliases (1)
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
→
political treatise → |
| arguesAgainst |
Blackstone’s defense of the common law
→
appeal to tradition in law → |
| arguesFor | principle of utility → |
| author | Jeremy Bentham → |
| belongsToLiteraryMovement | Enlightenment political thought → |
| circulation | anonymously published at first → |
| countryOfOrigin | Kingdom of Great Britain → |
| criticizes |
Commentaries on the Laws of England
→
William Blackstone → |
| firstEditionPublisher | T. Payne → |
| focusesOn |
critique of common law
→
principles of legislation → sovereignty and political obligation → |
| genre |
legal philosophy
→
political philosophy → |
| hasForm | prose → |
| hasLaterEdition | 19th-century editions with Bentham’s name → |
| hasNotableConcept |
codification of laws
→
critique of legal fictions → separation between law as it is and law as it ought to be → sovereignty of the legislator → utility as standard of right and wrong → |
| hasPhilosophicalSchool | utilitarianism → |
| hasPublicationDate | May 1776 → |
| hasReception |
considered foundational for utilitarian political theory
→
recognized as an important critique of Blackstone → |
| historicalPeriod |
Age of Enlightenment
→
surface form: "Enlightenment"
|
| influenced |
liberal political thought
→
modern jurisprudence → utilitarian legal theory → |
| influencedBy | Enlightenment philosophy → |
| isEarlyWorkOf | Jeremy Bentham → |
| language | English → |
| mainSubject |
legal theory
→
political theory → utilitarianism → |
| precededBy | Commentaries on the Laws of England → |
| publicationPlace |
London, England
→
surface form: "London"
|
| publicationYear | 1776 → |
| setInContextOf | English common law → |
| targetAudience |
legal scholars
→
political theorists → |
| timePeriod | 18th century → |
| workOf | Jeremy Bentham → |
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form: "Bentham's constitutional writings"