Daniel Park
Philosophy 231
5/11/14
Final Essay
How did the development of capitalism and disciplinary power change society? What particular effects have they had on American culture? To what extent does panopticism contribute to racism and sexism?
In this paper I will be focusing on Foucault’s reading Panopticism. In the article he states “experience has taught me that the history of various forms of rationality is sometimes more effective in unsettling our certitudes and dogmatism than is abstract criticism. For centuries, religion couldn’t bear having its history told. Today, our schools of rationality balk at having their history written, which is no doubt significant” (Foucault, 2002, p. 323) Foucault choses to pick at presumptions about capitalism through historical context. The emergence of the disciplinary society is connected with a number of wide historical processes such as scientific, juridical-political, and economic. …show more content…
“first, to obtain the exercise of power at the lowest possible cost ( economically, by the low expenditure it involves, politically, by its discretion, its low exteriorization, its relative invisibility) second, to bring the effects of the social power to the maximum intensity and to extend them far as possible, without wither failure to interval; third, to link this “economic” growth of power with the output of the apparatuses (educational, military, industrial, or medical) within which it is exercised: in short, to increase both the docility and the utility of all the elements of the systems.” (Foucault, 2002, p.
Philosophy 231
5/11/14
Final Essay
How did the development of capitalism and disciplinary power change society? What particular effects have they had on American culture? To what extent does panopticism contribute to racism and sexism?
In this paper I will be focusing on Foucault’s reading Panopticism. In the article he states “experience has taught me that the history of various forms of rationality is sometimes more effective in unsettling our certitudes and dogmatism than is abstract criticism. For centuries, religion couldn’t bear having its history told. Today, our schools of rationality balk at having their history written, which is no doubt significant” (Foucault, 2002, p. 323) Foucault choses to pick at presumptions about capitalism through historical context. The emergence of the disciplinary society is connected with a number of wide historical processes such as scientific, juridical-political, and economic. …show more content…
“first, to obtain the exercise of power at the lowest possible cost ( economically, by the low expenditure it involves, politically, by its discretion, its low exteriorization, its relative invisibility) second, to bring the effects of the social power to the maximum intensity and to extend them far as possible, without wither failure to interval; third, to link this “economic” growth of power with the output of the apparatuses (educational, military, industrial, or medical) within which it is exercised: in short, to increase both the docility and the utility of all the elements of the systems.” (Foucault, 2002, p.