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.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| A Fragment on Government canonical | 1 |
| Bentham's constitutional writings | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T765691 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Fragment on Government Context triple: [Jeremy Bentham, notableWork, A Fragment on Government]
-
A.
Considerations on Representative Government
Considerations on Representative Government is a political philosophy treatise by John Stuart Mill that analyzes and defends representative democracy as the most effective and just form of government.
-
B.
The Limits of Power
The Limits of Power is a political analysis book by historian Andrew Bacevich that critiques U.S. militarism, foreign policy overreach, and the constraints on American global dominance.
-
C.
Book V: Of the Influence of Government
Book V: Of the Influence of Government is the section of John Stuart Mill’s *Principles of Political Economy* that analyzes the proper functions, limits, and economic impact of government intervention in society.
-
D.
Tractatus Politicus
Tractatus Politicus is a posthumously published political treatise by philosopher Baruch Spinoza that analyzes the nature of political authority and proposes a rational, secular foundation for the state.
-
E.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America is a three-volume political treatise by John Adams that analyzes historical republics to justify and defend the proposed American system of separated powers and mixed government.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Fragment on Government Target entity description: 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.
-
A.
Considerations on Representative Government
Considerations on Representative Government is a political philosophy treatise by John Stuart Mill that analyzes and defends representative democracy as the most effective and just form of government.
-
B.
The Limits of Power
The Limits of Power is a political analysis book by historian Andrew Bacevich that critiques U.S. militarism, foreign policy overreach, and the constraints on American global dominance.
-
C.
Book V: Of the Influence of Government
Book V: Of the Influence of Government is the section of John Stuart Mill’s *Principles of Political Economy* that analyzes the proper functions, limits, and economic impact of government intervention in society.
-
D.
Tractatus Politicus
Tractatus Politicus is a posthumously published political treatise by philosopher Baruch Spinoza that analyzes the nature of political authority and proposes a rational, secular foundation for the state.
-
E.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America is a three-volume political treatise by John Adams that analyzes historical republics to justify and defend the proposed American system of separated powers and mixed government.
- F. None of above. chosen
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 |
Enlightenment
ⓘ
linked to:
Age of 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
ⓘ
linked to:
London, England
|
| publicationYear | 1776 ⓘ |
| setInContextOf | English common law ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
legal scholars
ⓘ
political theorists ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 18th century ⓘ |
| workOf | Jeremy Bentham ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: A Fragment on Government Description of subject: 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.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: A Fragment on Government