Foucault Discipline And Punishment

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Tayler Horton Reading Summary October 22, 2014 SO391 In Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault, Foucault analyzes punishment in its social context, and examines how fluctuating power relations affected punishment. In order to do so, he begins analyzing the situation before the 18th century – a time when public execution and corporal punishment were routine punishments, and torture was utilized in most criminal investigations. He notes that during that time, punishment was ritualistic and often targeted at the prisoner's body. Additionally, during the public executions, the audience was essential, seeing as public execution reinstated the power and supremacy of the king. However, Foucault contends that power is a strategy, or a game not…show more content…
For him, the panopticon represented the way in which discipline and punishment work in modern society. According to Foucault, the Panopticon was an illustration of power condensed to its idyllic form. Therefore, the Panopticon achieves the operations of power by increasing the number of people who can be controlled, and reducing the number necessary to operate it. It gives those in control power over people's minds through its architecture – as it can be inspected from outside, there is no threat of tyranny. In addition, he perceived it as an illustration of power in action; thus, observing the layout of the panopticon, one begins to realize how the methods of observation and examination function. Foucault goes on to argue that societies that are more sophisticated offer greater opportunities for control and observation. It seems that he assumes that modern society is grounded on the idea that all citizens are free and permitted to make certain demands on the state. However, he argues that these individuals cannot be understood without the mechanisms that also control and examine the citizen. Overall, while I felt that Foucault’s points fit well together, and he went into detail explaining his ideas, the article was difficult to read and consumed much more time than I had anticipated. I like the examples he used, and the level of detail he implemented. The first part of the article definitely…show more content…
Particularly, the modern understanding of American penitentiary would be found in his long dialogue on Bentham and his ideal of the Panopticon. Bentham was an exceptionally prominent thinker in terms of American conservatism and several of his theories influence American politics up to this day. This account is a logical nihilistic existentialism that has repercussions beyond not only mere penal codes, but also extends into the very nature of American society. The ideas put forth add a new level of discourse when considering the concept of freedom to the average American citizens, who would never even consider introspectively evaluating themselves as intertwined within the progressing field of
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