Unit 5 Assignment/Question 2
French philosopher Michel Foucault, whose primary field of inquiry was that of power systems working to control and monitor individuals, was massively interested in the process of punishment and how it evolved over time on the basis of power play in the society. This essay seeks to explore Foucault’s examination of the history of punishment, the changes that the penal system went through, the advantages and disadvantages that came with these changes and how Foucault’s vision of punishment varied from Bentham’s view.
Foucault’s Discipline and Punish asserts that it is “more efficient and profitable to place people under surveillance than to subject them to some exemplary penalty” (Sarup, 6). When examining punishment …show more content…
According to Foucault, discipline stemmed from monasteries and then transformed until it became a tool to control population. In this way, in the 18th Century, the idea of prison as a reforming institution began to catch on, evolving into an idea of a penitentiary, where the prisoner was turned into a delinquent, set apart as a foreboding example for the rest of the society. With the advancement in human sciences, norms were established that rendered certain things abnormal, including the delinquent, thus requiring institutionalization. The modern state, therefore, is difficult to separate from the idea of mass control and discipline. While discipline began as a path to salvation and peace in the ancient monasteries, Foucault claims that it transformed and became a way to control individuals. In this way, punishment has changed over time from a public sentence being handed out by a judge, to the development in human sciences turning experts into judges capable of judging people based on the norms created (Foucault, 21). The focus of the punishment switched from targeting the body to targeting the
French philosopher Michel Foucault, whose primary field of inquiry was that of power systems working to control and monitor individuals, was massively interested in the process of punishment and how it evolved over time on the basis of power play in the society. This essay seeks to explore Foucault’s examination of the history of punishment, the changes that the penal system went through, the advantages and disadvantages that came with these changes and how Foucault’s vision of punishment varied from Bentham’s view.
Foucault’s Discipline and Punish asserts that it is “more efficient and profitable to place people under surveillance than to subject them to some exemplary penalty” (Sarup, 6). When examining punishment …show more content…
According to Foucault, discipline stemmed from monasteries and then transformed until it became a tool to control population. In this way, in the 18th Century, the idea of prison as a reforming institution began to catch on, evolving into an idea of a penitentiary, where the prisoner was turned into a delinquent, set apart as a foreboding example for the rest of the society. With the advancement in human sciences, norms were established that rendered certain things abnormal, including the delinquent, thus requiring institutionalization. The modern state, therefore, is difficult to separate from the idea of mass control and discipline. While discipline began as a path to salvation and peace in the ancient monasteries, Foucault claims that it transformed and became a way to control individuals. In this way, punishment has changed over time from a public sentence being handed out by a judge, to the development in human sciences turning experts into judges capable of judging people based on the norms created (Foucault, 21). The focus of the punishment switched from targeting the body to targeting the