Jeremy Bentham · Philosophy

The Panopticon and the Reform of Punishment

Bentham’s utilitarian theory of punishment - that all punishment is itself an evil, justified only to prevent a greater evil - and his notorious prison design, the Panopticon, in which the mere possibility of being watched does the work of discipline.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that for Bentham all punishment is mischief, admissible only insofar as it excludes some greater evil, so its justification is forward-looking - deterrence, incapacitation, and reform, never retribution for its own sake - and that his Panopticon embodied this in an inspection-house where unseen but ever-po…

Leads to Cesare Beccaria.

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