Nietzsche's In The Genealogy Of Morality

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Introduction: Thesis In the Genealogy of Morality Nietzsche’s writing serves to suspend our judgment so that our perceptions of complex ideas and concepts goes beyond the simplistic categories of good and evil. His work challenges us to think beyond internalized morals and ideas and work toward thinking about ideas that are beyond the usual While in Foucault’s Discipline and Punishment, he explains the important of being aware of the disciplinary methods used by the government and society to maintain control over an individual’s body. Nietzsche’s main goal is to make us “suspend our judgments “when defining good and bad because it allows us to think critically and recognize the participants of the Master-slave relationship. It always to…show more content…
The shift has resulted in punishment that is directed at a person’s soul rather than the body. Torture and public executions were meant to make an example of someone and instill fear in the people. Therefore, people had the gruesome images come to mind should they think to commit a crime. The leader or king of a country used this method to control others through fear. However, modern punishment is meant to control the body rather than merely harm it and make an example of the person being punished. This change was not brought on by compassion or mercy, but rather the notion that control over the body would be a more effective way to discipline and punish. Punishment imposed by the government was always meant to control the bodies of its constituents. The move from torture to a timetable is just a more efficient way to control people. The change in the system was to punish better not punish less. Public ( new paragraph) executions were not just about the person being executed but instead about the audience because that execution was meant to instill fear. That fear was supposed to cause a person to control their own bodies and obey laws. The government hoped that they could scare people into behaving a certain way. However, this did not always work because many times people could commit smaller crimes and get away with them. Public executions were…show more content…
Modern punishment seeks to take away your rights and freedoms rather than harm your body. The current method of punishment used is meant to watch you and cause you to watch yourself as to avoid punishment. Therefore, the main point of current forms of punishment is surveillance and being under the constant feeling of being watched. One example that is used by Foucault to demonstrate this idea is the Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon; it illustrates how punishment has become both individualized and constantly visible. Discipline methods are no longer just applied to criminals but they have become more effective in the sense that they are applicable in numerous settings. For example, the Panopticon is “polyvalent in its applications; it serves to reform prisoners, but also to treat patients, to instruct schoolchildren, to confine the insane, to supervise workers, to put beggars and idlers to work.” (Foucault 205) The methods have become so adaptable they can be used to discipline students and work to maintain power over the individual. This form of punishment is focused on the individual’s’ mind rather than their body and it provides a much more form of control over the
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