Source identified1
Image design Golden Hour
Read & copy
“The object of the inspection principle is directly the reverse: it is to make them not only suspect, but be assured, that whatever they do is known, even though that should not be the case.”
Meaning & context
Bentham distinguishes inspection from secret eavesdropping: the proposed system is meant to shape behavior by making people believe their actions may always be observed.
Source details
Panopticon; or, The Inspection-House, represented by the Wikisource public-domain transcription of the 1791 publication containing letters written in 1787. This is Bentham’s historical institutional and penal-design argument, not a modern endorsement of surveillance or prison policy.