Blackwell Reference Online

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Most great philosophers have clearly identifiable works which form the central object of study when considering their thought. With Bentham it is more difficult. There are, indeed, two works which are normally taken to be his principal contribution, the Fragment on Government of 1776 and the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation of 1789. Both the Introduction and the Fragment are undoubtedly major works. They also have the advantage that Bentham himself saw them through the press. However, Bentham lived and wrote for a long time and both these works occur relatively early in it. After writing the Introduction (the main body of which was finished and printed in 1780, some nine years before it was published) Bentham went on writing for another fifty years. Also it was writing, rather than publishing, which was the center of this life. The material, if it was published at all, was published by others, often after his death. As their titles suggest, the published Fragment and Introduction were each only parts of much larger projects. The Fragment was a fragment of a much larger study Bentham had planned and substantially written of the leading contemporary jurisprudential writer, William Blackstone. The Introduction was the introduction to a rationally organized penal code, much of which Bentham had again drafted. Furthermore the reason he delayed ... log in or subscribe to read full text