Michel de Montaigne

Starting at the precise moment of one’s birth, our bodies become part of a society founded and maintain by a scheme of docile bodies. Mainly focused in the control of the human body, the structure emphasizes in turning the body into an obedient machine that will serve the necessities of a given civilization. Philosopher Michael Foucault describes this scheme, composed by three main techniques: “the scale of the control, the object of the control and the modality”(Foucault, pp. 331-332). Although…

Michel Foucault’s Panoptisicm lays out the design of a prison to convey absolute authority. Foucault writes, “He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication” (Foucault, 200). Foucault employs this design…

Michael Foucault believes that modern society is a society of surveillance, and his predictions could not be more accurate. Through the intention of producing something as lighthearted as entertainment, we have relied on the panoptic order to secure this gaze. This essay will use Foucault’s theory of the ‘panoptic’ order to discuss the ways the, ‘Funniest Security Camera Moments of All Time’ from America’s Funniest Home Videos uses found footage comedies to define our modern day visual culture.…

Foucault Vs Durkheim: A Comparison Between Deviation In Of Madness Itself: Histoire de la Folie and the Object of Psychiatric History, Nikolas Rose provides an analysis of Histoire de la Folie by Michel Foucault. In Rose’s article, he poses the question, “What is specific to madness itself?” (1987, p. 142). Rather than having a specific definition or characterization of ‘madness,’ the term is in relation to the constitutions of society (Rose 1987, p. 143). The idea of ‘madness’ is…

Michel Foucault wrote The History of Sexuality , which is a three volume analysis of sexuality in the western world. Foucault balanced this archaeological approach with a genealogical approach that he borrowed from Nietzsche. In the first volume, Foucault explorers the “repressive hypothesis” in which he says that the history of sexuality over the past three hundred years or so has been a history of repression. Repression is a manner in which a person is barred from expressing his or her…

The book, acting in an uncertain world: an essay on technical democracy examines the limits of liberal and deliberative democracies with growing technological society and also proposes solutions for the uncertainties prevailing because of them. Michel Callon, one of the authors is a main scholarly driving force of the book. He is well reputed French Sociologist and friend and colleague of Bruno Latour, but inclined toward more applied and less abstract approach than him. It mainly focuses on the…

The Map and the Territory Michel Houellebecq Date of publication: 2010 Publisher: Vintage Duration: 291 pages Winner of the 2010 Prix Goncourt - - - Observing the world of art and celebrity under the Houellebecq microscope - the result is: 'The Map and the Territory'; a collaborative journey of the world of quirks, ills and utter nonchalance through the eyes of artist Jed Martin. Not forgetting the inflated fortunes and the weariness of reinvention and the cuckoo need to make sense of visual…

Punishment Foucault describes the shift in punishment as “to be enclosed, to be deprived of light and to and to hide.” The Panopticon is meant to keep the prisoner from causing more crime, by letting them think that they will always be watched by the person in the tower found in the center. The cells without the actual bars act like its own personal stage. Foucault mentions that the prisoner is always alone, never communicated with, and always being watched. The side walls are what keeps them…

Human Nature Challenges the idea of the Panopticon What would you do if you thought you were constantly being watched? Would you change how you approached certain situations or would it drive you to do things you never imagined? Throughout the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses Jeremy Bentham’s design of the Panopticon which is based on Foucault's theory. Bentham states: “The Panopticon was to be a prison that gave the inmates the impression they were being watched at all times” (Bentham)…

The Napoleonic wars refer to the wars of the Napoleonic wars in the period of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). It led to major changes in the military and artillery of Europe, particularly the military system. Because the implementation of the national conscription system, making the war a huge scale, unprecedented. France, the rapid rise of national power, dominated Europe; but after the defeat of the invasion of Russia, the national potential plummeted. Napoleon's empire was eventually…