Jeremy Bentham, studio of Thomas Frye, 1760. National Portrait Gallery, UK.
frivolous; illogical; his reasons altogether futile; cold; reserved; affected; wary; exhibiting a frigid pride
In 1763, Jeremy Bentham attended William Blackstone's lectures on English common law at All Soul's College, Oxford. His descriptions of Blackstone as lecturer mark the origin of what was to be Bentham's lifelong critical engagement with a thinker he named every-thing-as-it-should-be-Blackstone.
Blackstone's Critic explores this relationship, from Bentham's rejection of Blackstone's insistence on the authority of historical precedent to their shared work on penal reform and its long influence on Bentham's Panopticon, or, the Inspection-House.
The exhibit is on view in the Lillian Goldman Law Library, Level 3, from February 17-June 26, 2026.
