Foucault And Agamben Theory Of Society

Foucault And Agamben Theory Of Society
Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben both have written on life in various matters, like how it has
been ordered and controlled by power. This article engages with the theories of Foucault and
Agamben and focuses on their work on resistance. It studies the different construction to the concept
of individual, which termed into singularity or life itself. In Agamben theory, dispositive represents
the power relation network, articulates how a power not based upon the classical conception of
sovereignty is a key term in Foucault thought that human being is transformed into both an object
and subject, on power relation. Agamben also focuses on that how dispositif especially operates as
an apparatus to control humanity. In analyzing the term dispositif Foucault and Agamben are look
like offering two different approaches for considering of free social life from the bonds of the
oppressive social structure. Foucault seeks the potential for an ethical self–creation in the emergence
of the new, be it a form of power, counter–conduct or an ethical culture of the self. As part of this
move, Foucault relies upon transcendent referents which are utilized to ground a new form of
freedom for the individual. In contrast, Agamben avoids all reference to transcendence, contending
that politics involves the deactivation of ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Not only, therefore, prisons, the panopticon, schools, confession, factories, disciplines, juridical
measures, and so forth (whose connection with power is in a certain sense evident), but also the pen,
writing, literature, philosophy, agriculture, cigarettes, navigation, computers, cellular telephones and
– why not – language itself, which is perhaps the most ancient of
... Get more on HelpWriting.net ...

Theories Of Michel Foucault
Page Robinson Week 6 Reflection: Origins of the Modern State Summaries Michel Foucault –
Governmentality Foucault's work on governmentality begins with the idea of the sovereign ruler. A
sovereign ruler's principality is acquired through inheritance or conquest. Therefore, the prince's
relation to what he owns is external. He seeks only to reinforce, strengthen, and protect his
principality. Transitioning away from the prince we have disciplinary power, which can be broken
into; the art of self–government, the art of properly governing a family, and the science of ruling the
state. A person who wishes to govern the state well must first learn to govern himself. The art of
government is determining how to introduce economy. Government in ... Show more content on
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Later with the invention of print capitalism people could think about themselves and relate
themselves to others. Book sellers were concerned with selling the largest profit which meant
reaching the largest consumer basis. The Latin speaking population represented a small consumer
basis and so book producers began to print books in common languages which created a large new
reading population. The fall of Latin was assisted by a change in the character of Latin itself, the
impact of the Reformation, and the slow, geographically uneven spread of particular vernaculars as
instruments of administrative centralization. The rise of new imagined communities was assisted by
capitalism, print (technology), and the fatality of human linguistic diversity. Print languages created
unified fields of exchange, gave a new fixity to language, and created new languages of power.
Frantz Fanon – The Wretched of the Earth Fanon's work concerns the event of decolonization which
he classifies as always violent. Fanon defines decolonization as the substitution of one "species" of
mankind for another. The change comes about from the repressed state of the colonized people.
Decolonization is a total transformation and challenge of the colonial situation. The colonial world
is divided in two, with the colonized subject dreaming of taking the place of the colonizer. By the
time the colonizer realizes what is happening and attempts to reason with the colonized, it

Michael Foucault Punishment
Michael Foucault's book, "Discipline & Punish, The Birth of the Prison" reflected a philosopher's
viewpoint of the evolution of discipline and punishment. The book was separated into four different
parts that would provide a historian with an excellent post modernistic background of the society's
change of punishment, and how these changes affected the cultural society. Foucault's book
discussed how the Sovereign power over the people was changed to the discipline of the people
through the use of penal systems. Foucault's deliberated how these changes created the disciplinary
switch from body to mind. The author expanded on these disciplinary changes and encompassed
other aspects of the society as a whole. The author then questioned ... Show more content on
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These same disciplinary standards were expanded into the hospitals, schools, and orphanages, in
order to create a structured society. Through the use of surveillance, and monitoring, the discipline
of the body and mind would create a normal society. The author explained the level of monitoring
used during the Black Plague as a system to determine a process of accountability. Foucault's also
provided an example of surveillance as a structure, by utilizing Bentham's Panopticon in his debate.
The author explained how a normal society was dictated by the rigid requirement of discipline and
actions. If these requirements were not met, the abnormal personality traits of sexuality, race and
family, was held accountable and would justify the ruling of penalties and reformation in order for
the people to fit the model of

Foucault Essay
Of course, the analysis of Michel Foucault didn't stay unnoticeable. In fact his work stirred up all
sorts of discussions. The author was accused of misreading the artwork, reducing the role of
Velasquez as a creator of Las Meninas and as a historical figure, imposing artificial meaning that is
not there, oversimplifying the painting and so on. In short, Foucault's interpretation located outside
of traditional art historical approach and therefore didn't seem legit for many scholars.
One of the main critiques comes from Robert Wicks, who blames Foucault's so called "oeuvre–
independent approach" for starting the new trend in philosophical discussions, characterized by one–
sidedness of viewpoint (Wicks, 259). Followers of Foucault often read the work of art from their
own perspective, completely disregarding its historical ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Only in comparison with other Velazquez's paintings, "the crucial layer's of work meaning" can be
revealed (260). In contrast to Foucault, Wicks uses traditional historian method to scrutinize the
painting. First, Wicks compares Las Meninas and The Spinners. Both works have depicted fable of
Arachne on the background (one of wall paintings in Las Meninas depicts myth of Arachne), and if
Velazquez chose this particular subject in his two major works, it must be very important for him,
therefore one must consider it in her/his interpretation(268). Second Wicks' comparison would be of
Las Meninas and St. John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos (1618). By juxtaposing hand
position in both painting, together with one of the many possible audiences of Las Meninas, namely
the menina figure, Wicks concludes that Velazquez personifies himself as St. John, "portraying

Foucault And Panopticon
Foucault and Freud on social control and discipline Foucault and Freud have different views on
what is needed to keep a civilization from going extinct. For Foucault, the presence of a panopticon
in a society will ensure discipline and the power needed for a civilization to continue. On the other
hand, Freud believes a panopticon will help build a strong civilization, but later will be its own
destruction. Although Foucault and Freud differ in their views of what the effect the panopticon will
bring, both agree that the panopticon is needed in order to enforce social control and discipline in a
civilization.
Though Foucault and Freud vary in their views on what is needed in a civilization, they agree a
Panopticon is needed to enforce social ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
In many communities, one has to act normal in order to fit in the crowd, or else they will be
classified as abnormal and excluded from the community. As Foucault states, "On the one hand, the
lepers are treated as plague victims; the tactics of individualizing disciplines are imposed on the
excluded; and, on the other hand, the universality of disciplinary controls makes it possible to brand
the 'leper' and to bring into play against him the dualistic mechanisms of exclusion" (Foucault,
1995). The Panopticon has branded the 'leper' as the plague causing the people around this person to
exclude this person from society. The goal of the Panopticon is to keep the community pure without
any person there to pollute and push back their progress. Social control and discipline is taken in
action in this situation, the Panopticon enforces people to view this person as abnormal and not fit to
be part of this society. As Foucault states, "So it is not necessary to use force to constrain the convict
to good behaviour, the madman to calm, the worker to work, the schoolboy to application, the
patient to the observation of the regulations. All that was needed was that the separations should be
clear and the openings well arranged" (Foucault, 1995). If the Panopticon was used correctly, the
community will not go against it which will make discipline to be less of a punishment and more

Michael Foucault Discipline And Punishment
Michael Foucault's Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison is perhaps his most well–known
and most acclaimed book of his time. Initially published in 1975 under the title Surveiller et Punir:
Naissance de la prison, the book is one of many of Foucault's philosophical histories of social
issues, with Histories of Madness and Medicine, The order of Things, and From Archaeology to
Genealogy having been published before Discipline and Punish, and History of Modern Sexuality,
and Sex in the Ancient World being published after. The post–modernist classic that is Discipline
and Punish describes the historical progression of the punishments used for different crimes
throughout the 18th and 19th centuries in various countries across Europe. The ... Show more
content on Helpwriting.net ...
In each of the four parts to Discipline and Punish a range of primary sources are referred to in order
to create imagery and gain understanding from the reader. For example, the quote about the ideal
soldier in the chapter, Docile Bodies, which states "the soldier ' will have to march in step in order to
have as much grace and gravity as possible, for the pike is an honourable weapon, worthy to be
borne with gravity and boldness'", is much more effective in drawing the reader in than would an
equivalent paraphrasing from the author (p. 135). Similarly, Foucault's use of the quote from a
prisoner, "'I see your cell as no more than a frightful sepulchre'", in the chapter, Complete and
Austere Institutions, is a much more accurate description of the thoughts of some in regards to
prisons in 1837 than what the author could have portrayed, simply because it is a primary source (p.
239). Furthermore, in between the chapters, Docile Bodies and The Means of Correct Training, there
are various pictures and drawings of such things as a prisoner in a cell in 1840 and a "lecture on the
evils of alcoholism in the auditorium of Fresnes prison." These images, which in some cases would
be unnecessary to the outline of a book, however, this is not the case in Discipline and Punish. The
ten images shown provide the

Essay on Michele Foucault Biopower
Michel Foucault wrote a book called History of Sexuality. In Part five of the book Right of Death
and Power over Life, he discusses about the historical "Sovereign Power" where one is allowed to
decide who has the right to live and who has the right to die. The sovereign uses his power over life
through the deaths that he can command and uses his authority to announce death by the lives he can
spare. Foucault then moves on to Disciplinary Power where he came up with the "Panopticon"
where one is to believe they were under surveillance at all times. Such surveillance is still used in
our everyday life such as schools, prisons, offices, hospitals, and mental institutes. Later in his life,
Foucault discovered Bio–power. This bio–power ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
This is where the regulatory controls such as bio–politics of the population take place. Foucault
describes how this "bio–power" has been influential to the rise and growth of capitalism. He was
adamant that the triumph of this economic structure "would not have been possible without the
controlled insertion of bodies into the machinery of production and the adjustment of the
phenomena of population to economic processes". (Foucault, p. 141) Since capitalism demands
growth, such as establishment of new companies and the production of merchandises, "it had to
have methods of power capable of optimizing forces, aptitudes, and life in general without at the
same time making them more difficult to govern." The life of humans was seen to be a significant
element to politics and history. How a person lived developed into an item of authority and
knowledge and needed to be synchronized, understood, and managed. The rules and regulations
turned out to be less concerned towards threatening and making judgment, but became more
concerned in stabilizing and making the conditions of life more effective. The new power that took
control over their lives means that they were over controlled by the politics.
In Lazzarato's article,

Foucault, Consumerism, and Identity
Foucault, Consumerism, and Identity
Michel Foucault presents those revolutionary sorts of analyses that are rich not only for their content
but for their implications and novel methodological approach. Just beyond the surface of his works
lies such philosophical wealth that one can be overwhelmed by considerations of which vein to mine
first, and what to make of the elements therefrom extracted. I've broken earth in several attractive
sites this last week. Some, it seemed, hid their treasures too deep for the scope of this excavation.
Some presented me with granite barriers which I do not yet have the tools to penetrate. At other
sites, the earth gave way easily and I made great progress, only to be ... Show more content on
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Since the average person could not take themselves as an object, they had to rely on that Other who
does have himself as object (the sovereign) to tell them who they are, and what their relationship is
to him, since he is capable of knowing both at once, and thus of comparing. The Classical age saw
an increased interest by the ruling classes, and the emerging intellectual class,2[2] in the affairs of
the productive classes. The realisation of the significance of microphysical power is parallelled by
the establishment of the subject as the final authority on belief (Luther), the foundation of
knowledge (Descartes), and the establisher of rights (Locke). These ideas gave power to masses who
had hitherto seen themselves as having none (hardly having "seen themselves" at all), and fuelled
the Age of Revolutions. The Classical discovery of the individual led, by the Romantic period, to its
exaltation. The belief in individual power and rights created a demand not only for access to the
privileges previously enjoyed only by the elite (such as say in the direction of society), but also for
comparable narrative distinctiveness.
As the romantics idealised the life of peasants, and socialists proclaimed the rights of workers,
common folk began to see their images in culture. Individual enshrinement remained the

Foucault Discipline And Punishment
When reading this piece, I noticed that book is all about how important and integrated prison is a
main part of our society around the world. It shows how it is impossible to get rid of them, mostly
because of the fact that there is no alternative to prisons really out there, and just like the title
suggests prisons are the main form of "Discipline and Punishment". Foucault's main argument is
that modern society, mostly referencing France, are based on the idea of individual liberty. As prison
deprives people of their liberty choices and leaving them in confinement leads to it being the most
ethical punishment. Most importantly, the systems of discipline, and observation that go around
inside a prison extend outside its walls. Although Foucault ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net
...
I feel that There are two images, then, of discipline. "At one extreme, the discipline–blockade, the
enclosed institution, established on the edges of society, turned in wards towards negative functions:
arresting evil, breaking communications, suspending time. At the other extreme, with panopticons,
is the discipline–mechanism: a functional mechanism that must improve the exercise of power by
making it lighter, more rapid, more effective, a design of subtle coercion for a society to come. The
movement from one project to the other, from a schema of exceptional discipline to one of a
generalized surveillance, rests on a historical transformation: the gradual extension of the
mechanisms of discipline throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, their spread
throughout the whole social body, the formation of what might be called in general the disciplinary
society. (209)" Which indeed is a very large mouth full. Although this is a lot for one quote I think it
was essential to quote in the explanation of this paper. The reason being is that it shows two
extremes on the spectrum of punishment and discipline. One being solitary confinement or
"discipline–blockade" or the other being "Panopticons" formulated by Mr.Foucault. Panopticons
being a form of reforming prisoners for

Judith Butler And Michael Foucault
Both Foucault and Butler claim that sexuality is not what makes us who we are, that it is simply a
social construct. In addition, they both believe that by submitting to the mechanisms of power and
categorizing ourselves sexually, we are giving impetus to our own subjugation. While they hold
similar beliefs in many ways, and much of Judith Butler's work is building upon work done by
Michael Foucault, Judith Butler does diverge from Foucault's ideas. The reason Butler revises
Foucault is that his concept of biopower leaves no room for resistance to power. For Foucault, a
shift in the 17th century from a top–down monarchial model of power which focused on the
individual gave way to a political technology for controlling entire populations. ... Show more
content on Helpwriting.net ...
Foucault spells out the genesis of this political technology and its use for social control: "One of the
great innovations in the techniques of power in the eighteenth century was the emergence of
"population" as an economic and political problem: population as wealth, population as manpower
or labour capacity, population balanced between its own growth and the resources it commanded.
Governments perceived that they were not dealing simply with subjects, or even with a "people," but
with a "population," with its specific phenomena and its peculiar variables." (298/25) This is where
we begin to see Foucault's concept of Biopower come into play. One of the central themes of
Foucault's writing, he defines biopower as "[T]he forms of power, the channels it takes, and the
discourses it permeates in order to reach the most tenuous and individual modes of behavior, the
paths that give it access to the rare or scarcely perceivable forms of desire, how it penetrates and
controls everyday pleasure–all this entailing effects that may be those of refusal, blockage, and
invalidation, but also incitement and intensification: in short, the 'polymorphous techniques of
power.'" (292/11 For Foucault, Biopower relates to the government's concern with fostering the life
of the population, but is also a form of complete control of that population through surveillance or
perceived surveillance. Foucault believed that Biopower permeates through the

Foucault
Foucault's theorisation of the power/knowledge relationship
Foucault in theorizing the relationship between power and knowledge basically focused on how
power operated in the institutions and in its techniques. The point is how power was supported by
knowledge in the functioning of institutions of punishment. "He places the body at the centre of the
struggles between different formations of power/knowledge. The techniques of regulation are
applied to the body" (Wheterell et al., 2001: 78)
Power is the ability to control others or one's entity. Accordingly it can be defined as a kind of
strength or as an authority. There are various theorisations about the meaning of this term in
sociology thus it would be hard to give a comprehensive ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net
...
When plague turned up the old system followed the then methods of observation and surveillance,
plague was everywhere thus the supporting power must have been mobilized. In this case "power is
mobilized; it makes itself everywhere present and visible; it invents new mechanism; it separates; it
immobilizes" etc. to make people act as it was expected in these conditions (because of the plague
almost every interactions must have been stopped in the interest of getting rid of the disease).
(Foucault, 1975) The Panopticon instead of exercising power from several sides emphasises the
importance and perfection of the surveillance focus from one place.
The Panopticon is a building which has an annual part in the periphery and a tower in the centre.
Next to omitting little details its most important feature is the ability to see into every cells without
being visible. "The panoptic mechanism arranges spatial unities that make it possible to see
constantly and to recognize immediately." (Calhoun et al., 2007: 209) The consciousness of being
watched make people put on their best behaviour, their best way of acting thus the inmates do not
commit any further crimes as it usually occurs that could happen without being watched.
The operation of this building gives the

Foucault Power
The Subject and Power Author(s): Michel Foucault Source: Critical Inquiry, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Summer,
1982), pp. 777–795 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343197 . Accessed: 26/09/2011 07:49
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support@jstor.org.
The ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
But this analytical work cannot proceed without an ongoing conceptualization. And this
conceptualization implies critical thought–a constant checking. The first thing to check is what I
shall call the "conceptual needs." I mean that the conceptualization should not be founded on a
theory of the object–the conceptualized object is not the single criterion of a good conceptualization.
We have to know the historical conditions which motivate our conceptualization. We need a
historical awareness of our present circumstance. The second thing to check is the type of reality
with which we are dealing. A writer in a well–known French newspaper once expressed his surprise:
"Why is the notion of power raised by so many people today? Is
Michel Foucault has been teaching at the College de France since 1970. His works include Madness
and Civilization (1961), The Birth of the Clinic (1966), Discipline and Punish (1975), and History of
Sexuality (1976), the first volume of a projected five–volume study.
Critical Inquiry
Summer1982
779
it such an important subject? Is it so independent that it can be discussed without taking into account
other problems?" This writer's surprise amazes me. I feel skeptical about the assumption that this
question has been raised for the first time in the twentieth century. Anyway, for us it is not only a
theoretical question but a part of our experience. I'd like to mention only two "pathological

Discipline And Punish By Michel Foucault
In the article, Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault, he describes a social theory called
panopticism. In Foucault's panopticism he talks about the panopticon, an architectural plan that was
created by Jeremy Bentham. The Prison structure of the twenty first century uses that same building
design as the panopticon. We see how the plague town in the Panopticism shows a chain of
authority. Prisons in the twenty first century use the same style of chain of authority in their
correctional institutes. The panopticon brings out a lot of mental effect to the prisoners when they
are sent into the cell. Prisoners in today 's society society go through the same mental effects of
inmates in the Panopticon. The ideas of panopticism are relevant to the development of the twenty
first century through building structure, a chain of authority command, guard surveillance, and
mental effects that prisoners go through.
Foucault uses Bentham's panopticon, a design for a model prison, as a symbol for disciple methods
that operates through a variety of ideas. The Panopticon was architectural design that has cells in a
circular structure with a central watchtower that was above the cells. In the article Foucault and the
Architecture of Surveillance: Creating Regimes of Power in Schools, Shrines, and Society by Joseph
Piro he states , "The Panopticon is a prison that is built radially, so that one guard positioned in its
center can view all prisoners. Foucault mapped out the origins of the

Foucault: Power, Knowledge, And Religion
Foucault: Power, Knowledge, and Religion 1) What does Foucault mean by power, tactics,
discourse, and power–knowledge? Foucault says that people cannot make formulated, definitive
understandings about social knowledge and then write them down in journals as law. The motives of
this knowledge, therefore. must be universal. For Foucault, this motive is power, but Foucault never
says this directly. He says power is "a grid of intelligibility of the social order" (HIS 93) while
knowledge is the same thing. Foucault says that it is in discourse that power and knowledge are
joined together (HIS 100) Foucault also states, "Discourses are tactical elements or blocks operating
in the field of force relations." (HIS 101–102) 2) What does Foucault

Foucault 's Discipline And Punishment
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries experienced a surge of social reform movements linked to
the Enlightenment, which transformed society into the modern culture seen today. Michel Foucault's
Discipline and Punish examines how punishment was viewed and enacted prior to the "humane"
awakening of the eighteenth century, while establishing the progression of change that shifted
punishment from the body to the soul. Foucault was a student and professor of philosophy and
psychology during the twentieth century, which influenced his writings and political activism.
Discipline and Punish is a result of his active participation in prison reform, in which he outlines the
history of the modern penal system and how it is linked to modern society, ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
Spectacle and purposeful pain on the body was the norm of the time, however, Foucault contrasts
this episode with a timetable for prisoners some eighty years later, a rigid schedule meant to control
and reform the prisoner's soul. By stating how "it was a time of great 'scandals' for traditional
justice, a time of innumerable projects for reform," (Foucault, 7) it becomes clear that the aim of
these four parts are to gradually demonstrate how one follows the other. Torture of the body became
punishment of the soul, which depended on discipline, ultimately creating the modern prison
system. Foucault's structure facilitates the audience to comprehend the forces behind this
transformation. Part one, Torture¸ elucidates how torture and execution was "an organized ritual for
the marking of victims and the expression of the power that punishes." (Foucault, 34) Within part
two, Punishment¸ the beginning of the "humanization" process is exposed by reform movements
that called for a redisposition of power, the goal was "not to punish less, but to punish better."
(Foucault, 82) Thus was born the idea of a prison, a space where one's soul could be corrected and
reformed. Discipline presents how institutions were created in order to observe individuals' behavior
and to compare their behavior to the 'norm', and that perpetual observation could coerce people into
this normative behavior. In this section, Foucault introduces Bentham's

Michael Foucault Panopticism
Panopticism is a social theory created by French philosopher Michael Foucault. Foucault starts off
by describing the actions took when the plague broke out in the seventeen century. People had to
leave their homes and belongings because they started a quarantine process. The plague is used as an
example to say where the idea of discipline came from. All new types of techniques and defense
mechanisms were created. Foucault then starts to talk about prisons and the prisoners inside of them.
Foucault pretty much says that each individual can be seen, but can't communicate with anyone. The
panopticon is a prison with a big watch tower in the middle. It was built like this so the prisoners
can be efficiently watched and guarded. The prisoners every move was watched and monitored. This
was another way of punishment because they weren't being punished physically, but mentally. The
prisoner's minds were being controlled, instead of their bodies. Foucault believes that modern
society is the same way as the prison was run, maybe not to the same extreme, though. Everything is
run by the state like for example, schools, hospitals, police stations, jobs, and many more. Foucault
believes we can't escape the social norms. We ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
I don't agree with when he says that we are "prisoners in our own bodies" because I believe we have
so much freedoms in this country. I do understand we our controlled by the state and government,
but it's not like we can't do anything. Also, I agree with the fact that schools, hospitals, and prisons
are alike in ways of not looks, but the way they classify us as an individual. This idea is very
interesting and complex because either side cam have a strong argument on how either is wrong. I
believe he is right because everything may be hard to believe because of how scary the truth is.
Reading this essay starts to get you thinking, "Am I really

Foucault And The Panopticon
A Panopticon is a structure designed to where subjects can be observed from a central viewpoint,
but cannot view each other. Why can the Central tower supervise the inmates while the inmates
cannot supervise others? Simply because the central tower has the power, for the inmates to be able
to observe each other in the same manner would either be inconsequential, or unjust. Foucault says
that knowledge and power are deeply intertwined and that both can be used to produce the other via
observation, or control. One of the issues that arise from having a society similar to the Panopticon
is that not all of those who serve as a central tower can be regarded to as virtuous.
For This week's assignment, I chose the NSA as my subject because I feel

Foucault Panopticism
about that person (past and present); things that eventually you can use to control, alter, mould, and
even penalize with. This is what Foucault meant when he stated that "using techniques of subjection
and methods of exploitation, an obscure art of light and the invisible was secretly preparing a new
knowledge of man" (Foucault 1984, 189). Today, Foucault's theory of surveillance is still very much
in practice especially with the law enforcement agencies such as the police department, the Federal
Bureau Institution, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Apart from sovereign power as discussed above, Foucault also believed that the educational system
was simply another tool through which humans were monitored, and this was made possible through
... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
In his view, the very architecture of school buildings, hospitals, prisons, and state buildings were
designed to depict power (Foucault 1984, 190). To Foucault, power employed the "mechanism of
panopticism" to observe and control (Foucault 1984, 206). The idea of panopticism here is being
used to denote a system where institutions use open spaces as a means of exercising power. For
example, Foucault saw great similarities in the spatial design of the military camp and high schools,
hospitals, and prisons. In Foucault's words, "this infinitely scrupulous concern with surveillance is
expressed in the architecture by innumerable petty mechanisms" (Foucault 1984, 191). These
'mechanisms' Foucault refers to here include the unending tests, documentation and paper work that
is carried out on students, patients, and military personnel, and it was through this that conclusions
were made on whether a person conformed to societal expectations or not. Furthermore, conclusions
can then be made on a person's mental state, guilt, educational level, military competence, and so
on. This led Foucault to ask if "the disciplines have now become the new law of modern society"?
(Foucault 1984, 196). It is important to mention here that although Foucault viewed knowledge as
controlling and stifling, he also saw it as productive and useful, and thus he insists that "we must
cease once and for all to describe the effects of power in negative terms: it "excludes", it "represses",
it "censors", it "abstracts", it "masks", it "conceals". In fact, power produces reality, domains of
objects, and rituals of truth" (Foucault 1984, 204–205). What this means is that although power can
be used as a tool by institutions as discussed above, it can also be used by individuals to

Explain The Panopticon By Michel Foucault
According to Michel Foucault, power is knowledge and knowledge is power. He also believed that
as individuals, everyone will react to situations in different ways. Foucault said that power "reaches
into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and
attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives."1 Foucault believed that
knowledge is always a form of power, but he took it a step further and told us that knowledge can be
gained from power. Through observation, new knowledge is produced. Foucault presents these
thoughts in the following manner.
"Knowledge linked to power, not only assumes the authority of 'the truth' but has the power to make
itself true. All knowledge, once applied ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
This building allowed the guard, who was usually located in the center tower, to monitor every
prisoner while no prisoner could see the guard. This created an illusion of being monitored even
when the guard was not looking at a particular inmate. This constant observation acted as a control
mechanism; a consciousness of constant surveillance is internalized. According to us, the
documentation of Sijil was similar to a Panopticon prison. It gave the Ottoman state, an ability to
constantly monitor every subject by recording them into Sijils. The documentation of its subjects
and the territorialisation of Sharia law can be considered as the process of govenrmentality (2nd
point above) in Ottoman empire. By documenting the different parameters of its subject, the state
always knew how, what and when to exercise its power. This 'How–What–When' represents the
knowledge which is required to yield power and power again gives them the ability to further
observe them and these new observations lead to new knowledge and news ways of exercising
power. Thus it becomes a vicious

Comparing Foucault And Panopticism
Panopticism Panopticism is a social theory named after the Panopticon, according to Foucault, his
describes a watch tower in a prison and he thinks Panopticism is how people act different when
they're being watched. Rayner perspective on Panopticism is how we can use social media to our
advantage. In this essay, I will analyze both Foucault and Rayner perspective on Panopticism and
will determine the rhetorical appeals of both writings. This is an example of ethos because
"Generally speaking, it might be said that discipline are techniques for assuring the ordering of
human multiplicities. It is true that there is nothing exceptional or even characteristics in this: every
system or power or presented with the same problem" ( Foucault, 2012, p. 207). Foucault was a
French historian and philosopher. He had a strong influence in philosophy, but also in a wide range
of humanistic and social scientific disciplines. Foucault was the philosopher who created the term,
"Panopticism". This is an example of Logos because, "In this task of adjustment, discipline had to
solve a number of problems for which the old economy of power was not sufficiently equipped. It
could reduce the inefficiency of mass phenomena: reduce what, in a multiplicity, make it much less
manageable than unity...." (Foucault, 2012, p. 208). He talks about the watch tower in a prison and
they noticed when people are being watched from the watchtower, people change their behavior.
This is an example of of

The Ethics Of Foucault And Today
Karlton Ruf
Professor
General Philosophy
28 June 2015
The Ethics of Foucault and Today
Ethics has been studied from different spectrums throughout time whether political or moral based, a
collective or individual effort, philosophers have studied theses values based on what is right and
wrong. One thinker who is not commonly seen as a philosopher but referred to in countless works is
Michel Foucault. Michel Foucault was a French historian and Philosopher and is known more for
his works of "histories of medical and social sciences" (Gutting 1). This unique prospective and
transition of his works as being looked at solely in his field of psychology and history to a
philosophy perspective translate into his works. Foucault was a political ... Show more content on
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They are very similar in nature and depend on each other but ethics for him is greater than good and
bad, his view of ethics is how we preserve our own actions and morality as our actions concerning
others. His ethics revolve about freedom and liberty. As he states in Wain's journal Foucault: the
ethics of self creation and future of education "liberty is the ontological condition of ethics, but
ethics is a deliberate form assumed by liberty" (163). Foucault was trying to state that to prevent
someone's freedoms is unethical as long as their action are not prohibiting the freedom of others.
When an actions does prohibit others freedom then it is considered as unethical.
Foucault idea of how to reach ethical outcomes by self observation can be problematic. As Foucault
emphasizes to obtain freedom, one must have power. There are those with and without power in
society, if this is so is it ethical that those without power are not granted freedom? There lack of
freedom would be unethical making it hard for is theory to currently apply on a large scale without
hypocrisy. His theory of ethics is based on individual self understanding because as stated by Mary
Moore of the department of behavioral sciences at the University of Indianapolis, in her journal
"Ethical Discourse and Foucault 's Conception of Ethics" "ethics is thought to refer to the behavior
of individuals because only the individual is the authentic moral

Is Foucault 's Panopticism?
To start, is Foucault 's Panopticism. Panopticism uses the idea of Bentham's Panopticon to elaborate
the disciplinary ideas that he is trying to explain. The Panopticon is an "all seeing" structure that
makes observations without the people ever knowing when they were being watched, even though it
is clearly visible (Foucault, 204). Its gaze can be upon anyone, from a "madman, a patient, a
condemned man" (Foucault, 200). These features allow Panopticism to be a passive power, rather
than an active one. With this in mind, power is shifted from the hands of the individual to the
anonymous "supervisor" of the Panopticon (Foucault, 200). This method of observation facilitates
the transformation of individuals to controllable individuals (Foucault, 205).
As the Panopticon is established, a system of normalizing judgements is also at play. With this
system, power does not need to actively enslave its people anymore. Instead, social norms are all
subjected upon society passively. This is achievable through "micro–penalties" that Panoptic
institutions –military, schools, and hospitals– construct (Foucault 178). All of these disciplines affect
the "politeness...behavior...and speech" of society (Foucault 178). It is a system of punishment that
makes everyone accountable, while rewarding and punishing individuals as a whole. This equality
creates a minimum of how people should actively behave. Through the creation of this behavior
minimum people become normalized and those who are

Essay on Foucault Panopticism
Panopticism by Michel Focault
Works Cited Not Included
"Our society is not one of spectacle, but of surveillance; under the surface of images, one invests
bodies in depth; behind the great abstraction of exchange, there continues the meticulous concrete
training of useful forces; the circuits of communication are the supports of an accumulation and a
centralization of knowledge; the play of signs defines the anchorages of power; it is not that the
beautiful totality of the individual is amputated, repressed, altered by our social order, it is rather
that the individual is carefully fabricated in it, according to a whole technique of forces and bodies.
(pp.333–34)"
In the essay, Panopticism, by Michel Focault, he makes the argument ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
The persons with the plague (lepers were included in this group) were always observed to account
for their presence. These people were supposed to be present at their windows for attendance. Where
they not present at the time, they were marked as dead. Their family would be removed, the house
would be cleaned out, perfumed, and then, a mere four hours later, people would move back in.
Obviously, the fear of not being observed would be strong in this situation, a direct result of the
drastic measures taken once someone's presence could not be observed. Though this fear has the
opposite motivation of the healthy citizens, who, knowing they are being watched, are afraid to do
wrong, it works on the same basic principle. That if one knows they are being watched, it remains a
constant consideration in their mind, regardless of the presence of an observer, the fear will always
be present.
The Panopticon, a prison described by Foucault, "is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen
dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing" (321, Foucault). This literally
means that in the formation of the panopticon those who are being seen can not see one another and
the one who sees everything can never be seen. That is the most important tool of the panopticon.
Foucault makes this assumption about today's society by saying that we are always being watched
whether we know it or not. One always keeps an eye over their shoulder as a

Michel Foucault And The Panopticon
I am actually very familiar with Michel Foucault, and most criminology students are familiar with
his idea (from Jeremy Bentham) of the panopticon and it will come up time and again. The
information I already knew of was all reestablished in reading through this chapter, "Panopticism",
from Discipline and Punish. I knew that the panopticon was the idea of a tower in a prison where a
guard could look and see every prisoner. However, the prisoners do not always know when there are
guards are in the prison, so they will alter their behaviour even if they believe that they are being
watched. It all concerns surveillance curving and controlling human behaviour. There are two key
principles with the panopticon: the visibility of power (the guard tower where everyone can see that
power exists), and unverifiable power (one is not sure when one is being watched). Importantly, "the
Panopticon must not be understood as a dream building: it is the diagram of a mechanism of power
reduced to its ideal form" (Foucault, 1975, p. 511). Ultimately, in Foucault's panopticon, disciplinary
power is executed through surveillance and knowledge. Although I have decent foundational
knowledge on the panopticon, I still learned from this reading. I was particularly fascinated with the
proposition that the panopticon may have been inspired by Le Vaux's menagerie at Versailles.
Foucault explains, "the Panopticon is a royal menagerie; the animal is replaced by man, individual
distribution by specific

Foucault Research Paper
The purpose of the lecture, as expressed by Professor Jane Nicholas was to measure and assess
whether Foucault was a historian, and to sketch out his influence in developing the history of
sexuality. First, we discussed the impact Foucault had on the academic world. First, he was a world–
renowned scholar who had charted a new course of academic study that crossed the humanities,
social science, and other sciences. In the 1980s, with his emerging thought, there was the idea of
historiography (study of the writing of history). Professor Nicholas emphasized that history is a tool
for changing how we think, and teaches us to make choices. In addition, the death of Foucault
impacted the academic world as he died of an AIDS–related illness, and was the first to do so in
France. With the discovery of AIDS in the 1980s, it was first described as GRID (gay–related
immune deficiency) which lead to the stigma that would become associated ... Show more content
on Helpwriting.net ...
This article, as the title suggests, discusses the history of sexuality. In the early 1700s, in the
Victorian Era, sexuality was not to be discussed, and if so, very discretely and not in front of
children. As sexuality progressed, it became a political cause as the demand for sexual freedom, and
the knowledge to be gained. Sexuality became a sort of power. For this reason, Foucault suggests
that we find it difficult to speak on the subject as we feel we are defying established power. In
addition, the second reading was Michel Foucault, French Historian by Peter Kerr. This article
describes a brief history of Michel Foucault. The article discussed some of philosophies, including
structuralism, writings such as; "The Order of Things", "The Birth of the Clinic", and "The
Archeology of Knowledge", and the various social causes he was active in. One idea that stood out
was his idea of insanity, stating, that it was less a medical problem than a way in which society
categorized

Foucault Body And Punishment
Foucault sees discipline moving from the body to the soul or mind. Through a lengthy introduction
that illustrates the torture and killing of a man in public, we see how punishment and discipline was
exerted by physical means and in front of a populace. That discipline and punish is now evolved into
a form of confining those to a small space behind walls where the public cannot see them. The
punishment is not of the body but of the mind and soul, as Foucault calls it. Foucault argues that a
new relationship has been formed between the body and punishment by saying: "from being an art
of unbearable sensations, punishment has become an economy of suspended rights."
It appears to be almost a past–time of various historians to discredit and attack

Foucault and Nietzsche on Knowledge
The concept of power should be considered with greater attention because it shows a path to which
Foucault adheres, to an extent, but not to the discharge of other pathways that contradict it. In fact,
productive power comes from Foucault's idea that contradictory vision disables power against a
self–governing subject and does not understand the connection of power and its subject. What is
more important, is that Foucault makes a rational connection between knowledge and power, stating
that power relations are predicated on knowledge, but the latter does not imply power relations.
Nonetheless, the denial of independent knowledge is associated with the independent individuality,
which means that power and knowledge are combined to deliver a form of subjectivity. A
psychological identity relates to a persons self–image and needs to be revealed by delivering an idea
that defines modern outlooks on individual. The human sciences develop different aspects of
individuality and identity and, therefore, they are based on the assumption that science is a reflection
of power relations leading to knowledge expansion. According to John McGowan, in The Problem
of Freedom in Postmodern Theory, "knowledge, power, and the subject are shown to be intimately
related to one another within a single productive process (p. 129)." In this instance, it could be stated
that power is considered to be the major source of knowledge and subject. The connection between
knowledge and power creates the

Michel Foucault Panopticism
"Panopticism is a social theory named after the Panopticon, originally developed by French
philosopher Michel Foucault. The "panopticon" refers to an experimental laboratory of power in
which behaviour could be modified, and Foucault viewed the panopticon as a symbol of the
disciplinary society of surveillance." (Foucault pg. 1) Even though panopticism was created in the
1950's, we still use it in modern day society. It has been modernized into using security cameras,
religion, etc.... Most security cameras are just for show and not to actually record you or they are on
and operating, but rarely anyone is watching. With these in place, people will self regulate their
behavior so they will not get caught. Security cameras have been used as a

Three Modes Of Objectification In Foucault
Michel Foucault was a French thinker, philosopher and postmodernist. He has been hugely
influential in shaping understandings of power. He talked about how the power and knowledge are
used as a form of social control through societal institutions and also the relationship between them
(Michael Power,
Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 37, (2011), pp. 35–56, Published by: Annual
Reviews).
In the book "The Foucault Reader: An Introduction to Foucault's Thought,
Edited by Paul Rabinow, 1984", he claims that his "goal is not to analyze the phenomenon of power
but to create a history of different models through which human beings have become subjects"
(Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche,
Genealogy, History," in Paul Rabinow, editor, The Foucault Reader, New
York: Pantheon ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Objectification of subject:
Subject refers to the active individual or social group with consciousness or will while object refers
to that on which the subject's cognitive or other activity observes[1]. Objectification of subject
means treating a person (subject) as a thing (object) without any regard to their dignity. According to
Foucault(1983), there are three modes of objectification:
1. Dividing Practices: Dividing practices is the systematic social or cultural categorisation of
different classes thus objectifying the subject either by a process of division with others or even
within himself tending to give the subject two different identities i.e social and personal. This mode
is mainly about objectificaton of individuals drawn first from a rather undifferetiated mass and later
from more highly preselected populations. Dividing practices are maily the techniques of
domination applied to the working class, vegabond population. Examples he gave from society are
the isolation of lepers during middle ages; the confinement of the poor, insane and vegabonds in the
great catch–all Hospital in Paris in 1656 (Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche,

Compare And Contrast Nietzsche And Foucault
Both Nietzsche and Foucault have similar ideas about the genealogy of punishment. On the one
hand, Nietzsche argued that the initial public displays of punishment arose out of our basic primal
instincts – to see the wrongdoer punished in a public manner so everyone who wanted to see their
suffering (and according to Nietzsche this mob was composed of anyone who didn't repress their
instincts and urges) could do so. Foucault, on the other hand, presents his account as a genealogy.
His genealogy gives us an account of the shift from the old method of sovereign power towards the
modern method of disciplinary power. In the older system of punishment, the power to execute and
punish was held absolutely by the sovereign, and all public displays ... Show more content on
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The execution or punishment itself is most often carried out by a state–appointed executioner,
working as a direct representative of the sovereign's power in order to further dissuade the public
witnessing the execution of committing other crimes (DP, 9). Around a hundred years later, there
was a shift away from these public displays of power and violence to a more corrective and
rehabilitating process. Foucault defines disciplinary power as the power to return a wrongdoer to the
normative standards of society (DP, 179). As the years go on, power is taken away from a central
body and is exhibited through institutions such as schools, prisons, and hospitals where power and
knowledge is maintained through the sciences (e.g. psychology, sociology, and psychiatry) rather
than laws. This new form of power is exercised over the individual's soul rather by disciplining their
body (DP, 30). In other words, these new houses of power prefer a correctional approach in order to
rehabilitate the wrongdoer and cut down on the amount of individuals not adhering to the norms of
society (DP, 19). By doing this, disciplinary power and punishment is exercised over subjects
through hierarchical

An Essay On Foucault 's Virtue
Kevin Nguyen
04/16/15
REHT 250
Dr. Chriss Warren Foster Argument "What is Critique? An Essay on Foucault's Virtue" is the article
that Judith Butler reads and analyzes the ideas of Foucault's in the article, "What is Critique?"
Foucault wants to express his ideas that critique is a repetition of power, which would deliver the
issue with an evident as a part of autonomous. However, when Foucault rejects the impression of the
autonomous matter, what portions of independence are actually thinkable for the subject? Butler's
article really wants to explain that application in Foucault's situation by exploring the philosophy of
advantages and of communication acts. Nonetheless, in order to show the resolution of the fact as
serious ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
In Panopticism, Foucault states that, in society, it does not really matter who has the most influence,
but that influence is formed by the position. Furthermore, it is referring the fact that in Panoptican,
the certain design may characterize the power of structure. The restriction on communication of
hostage can interconnect them with each other, or who and what they will recognize within the
environment of being a prision. This can simply defines as the structure and other matters. Then in
that circumstance, the entire perspective is agreed together and delivered escalation to the higher
power, so that the hostage's impression being watched by each other rather than the protector who is
observing them. A specific organization or a person can sometimes experience emotion or being
terrified because power is more controlled and necessary than precise. It sort of depends on the
condition, a lot of the time people suppress the situation to the value where they cannot even
comprehend its power at performance and that 's the whole point.
Regarding the issue of gender, there are many ways to classify the issue. One–way is the very
influences that function to constantly describe and define sex classifications as dissimilar dualistic.
It 's a kind of invisible, but all around society and mechanism every day to tell human that people
are

Comparing Foucault And Panopticism
Panopticism is a social theory named after the Panopticon, according to Foucault, his describes a
watch tower in a prison and he thinks Panopticism is how people act different when they're being
watched. Rayner perspective on Panopticism is how we can use social media to our advantage. In
this essay, I will analyze both Foucault and Rayner perspective on Panopticism and will determine
the rhetorical appeals of both writings. This is an example of ethos because "Generally speaking, it
might be said that discipline are techniques for assuring the ordering of human multiplicities. It is
true that there is nothing exceptional or even characteristics in this: every system or power or
presented with the same problem" (Foucault, 2012, p. 207). Foucault is one of the most prominent
philosopher of the 20th century. He had a strong influence in philosophy, but also in a wide range of
humanistic and social scientific disciplines. Foucault was the philosopher who created the term,
"Panopticism". This is an example of Logos because, "In this task of adjustment, discipline had to
solve a number of problems for which the old economy of power was not sufficiently equipped. It
could reduce the inefficiency of mass phenomena: reduce what, in a multiplicity, make it much less
manageable than unity...." (Foucault, 2012, p. 208). He talks about the watch tower in a prison and
they noticed when people are being watched from the watchtower, people change their behavior.
Foucault believes

Foucault Sex And Power Essay
Foucault states, "We must at the same time conceive of sex without the law and power without the
king" (81). Foucault argues that sex and power must not be viewed as something that is only
controlled by the law but rather as multidimensional with various forms that do not manifest
themselves solely in coercion. Foucault's suggests that power is unacquired, not external but within
internal structures, non–binary, intentional and non–subjective, and exists simultaneously with
resistance. First, Foucault suggests that power is not a "thing" that an individual can or cannot have
but can be exercised from various angles in any relation. Foucault states, "Power is not something
that is acquired, seized, or shared, something that one holds on to or allows to slip away" (94). ...
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Similarly, like power, nature is not one "thing" we can point to or acquire. Individuals can point to
mountains and lakes but must recognize that nature itself is more abstract. As like power, nature
suggests a compelling relationship between individuals and the earth which indicates how it
constantly changes. Secondly, Foucault suggests that power is not external to the relationships it
works upon, but determines their internal structure, insinuating that power operates within
institutions. Foucault states, "Relations of power are not in a position of exteriority with respect to
other types of relationship (economic, knowledge relationships, sexual relations), but are immanent
in the latter" (94). In other words, power should be evaluated within and in relation to economics,
sexuality, knowledge relationships, etc. Power should be identified within these structures because
the relationships and connections that are formed within these structures determine and produce
what power looks and feels like. Furthermore, nature is not something that solely exists externally
but as something that works within itself. As like power, nature should be thought of as a changing
process

Biographical Paper Of Michel Foucault
Biographical Paper of Michel Foucault. Michel Foucault Kenya Coleman Principles of Sociology
Professor Preston September 12, 2016 French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault, was
born in Poitiers, France October 15, 1926. He was the professor of the History of Systems of
Thought and also was the founder of Groupe d'information sur les prisons He wrote " Introduction"
to Dream and Existence by Ludwig Binswanger who was a Heideggerian psychiatrist and wrote
"Malasle mentale et personalite" which was a short book on mental illness. He supported
structuralist and poststructuralist movements and also protested on behalf of homosexuals. Some of
the things he studied and wrote books for was Discipline and Punishment, The History of Sexuality,
Madness and Civilization, The Order of Things, The Archaeology, The Birth of The Clinic, The
Birth of Biopolitics, Society Must Be Defended, Power/ Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other
Writings, Security, Territory, Population,, Aesthetics Method and Epistemology, This is not a Pipe,
Fearless Speech and so many more. He was an early victim of AIDS, which lead to his death in
Paris on June 25, 1984, but his work still impacts us today and others after him including: Gilles
Deleuze, Sigmund Freud, Martin Heidegger, Erving Goffman and Georges Canguilhem. One thing

Foucault Dimension Of Power
Power is usually defined as the ability to achieve a desired outcome, i.e. to 'do' something. The
concept of power is normally defined of by the legislature in a rational sense, having power over
others. There are three dimensions of power: decision making power, non–decision–making power
and power as thought control (Buse et al 2005). Foucault's view on power is one which extends
across several different sites; gender, race and sexuality. Observing power in contemporary society
as "disciplinary" incorporates hierarchical observation, normalizing judgement, and examination to
measure every individual's deviation from a societal norm. For Foucault power in contemporary
society manifests itself on an individual level characterized by the techniques of bio and disciplinary
power, in a ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Foucault noted development in the nature of punishment, a change in the content of punishment and
he also noted a wider change taking place in the context of widespread social order. As
aforementioned, Foucault noticed a development in the nature of punishment, this is underlined by
his understanding that punishment passed on from torture to imprisonment. The shift in the content
of punishment is symbolized by Bentham's vision of a panopticon because it's an example where
prisoners are aware they are unsure whether they are always under surveillance and spend the day
duly in their cells; isolation is torture of the soul, and lastly Foucault also notes a 'broader change in
the social order, (1997, pp. 216–217.) Mathiesen argued that, 'the movement towards the panoptical
form was not only a characteristic feature of the modern prison. A new kind of society was implied
in the transformation' (p. 217). The change in social order being exemplified by the

Risk And Governmentality By Michel Foucault
Risk and governmentality Michel Foucault, a French philosopher, introduced the term
governmentality in his lectures at Collège de France in the late1970s and early 1980s; so roughly
between 1977 and 1984. The term governmentality refers to both the way in which a state governs
the body of its population and to the way in which people are taught to govern themselves. In this
paper I will explain what a 'governmentality' approach to risk means and what the implications of
this approach are. Foucault himself did not spend a lot of his time on the topic of risk in his writings
about governmentality. According to Foucault, governmentality "was understood in the broad sense
of techniques and procedures for directing human behaviour. Government of children, government
of souls and consciences, government of a household, of a state, or of oneself". Foucault argues that
governmentality began to emerge in Europe in the sixteenth century and by the eighteenth century,
"the early modern European states began to think of their citizens in terms of populations, or
'society', a social body requiring intervention, management and protection." From a Foucauldian
perspective, the nature of risk is not the key question for the analysis of risk. Foucauldian writers see
risk as a 'calculative rationality'. Those who adopt the governmentality approach agree on the fact
that risk is something that can be managed through human interventions. 'Governmentality' scholars
explore risk in the

Foucault Discipline And Punishment
In Discipline and Punishment, Foucault does an interpretation and expose of the implicit power
relationship that has been pervasive throughout society. Foucault undertakes this task through a
genealogy that attempts to track the metamorphosis of power using the penal system as a conduit.
For Foucault, it seems that the relationship between the disciplinary form of punishment and the
carceral archipelago is not only fundamental to understanding contemporary power, but they
integrally related. By the end of the paper not only will the link between the carceral archipelago
and punishment become evident, but how it has also infested the internet and its culture. Foucault
sets the stage for Discipline and Punishment with acerbic account of the

Difference Between Foucault And Gramsci
Usually, power is understood as the capacity of an agent to impose his will over the will of the
powerless as well as the ability to force that are powerless to do things they do not want to do or
wish to do. In that way it can be said that power is understood as possession or as something owned
by those in power. As power is theorized in many different ways by great thinkers such as Michael
Foucault and Antonio Gramsci, this essay will look at how Gramsci's conception of power is
different from and/or complementary to Foucault's conception of power. It will show as to whether
there is space for resistance in either of their notions of power as well as how they help us
understand South Africa or not. It will also use different examples together ... Show more content on
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For Foucault power is positive in the sense that it maintains discipline in the society as we have to
cooperate and obey the rules and power also ensures that we do things however it is negative in the
sense that it deters us from doing something. For example, if a person murders someone, they know
that they will be arrested because it is declared as a crime. As power lies in civil society for
Gramsci; civil society allows participation whereby people know their rights however though it
allows participation hegemonic ideology presents interests of dominant class as the interest of all
(Gramsci, 1977, 181). An example in this case can be that of we elect the government which is to
say that we have a say on which government should rule us however it is for the interests of the
government as through us it is able to maintain capitalism from the labour that we

Foucault Vs Berger
Modern day power originates from the mind in that we give certain figures power based upon man–
made forms of value or worth like money. The definition of power has fluctuated throughout time,
and while the past may have emphasized the more violent aspects, today, we have shifted towards a
more control based interpretation. Both Michael Foucault and John Berger delve into the idea of
power and its functionality. Based on their texts, in our current socio–cultural setting, power is best
exploited when the concept behind the power is deindividualized for many purposes, internalized by
the people, and integrated throughout society to the point that its origins is mystified.
Michael Foucault explores the extent to which power has pervaded our lives ... Show more content
on Helpwriting.net ...
If the image is no longer unique and exclusive, the art object, the thing, must be made mysteriously
so," (Berger 44). Therefore, the final step in the exploitation of power is mystification of its origins.
Over time a concept will build its image and solidify its strength through results, showing the public
its value until it becomes integrated and thus, hidden within society. There are several examples of
power that has become formally accepted or internalized by the public and it is difficult to see how
they exploit power because their origins are mystified. For the concept of originality in art, we can
see how its status may have risen because of the definition we give to "originality" rules that have
commercial purposes or vice versa. Some examples include companies that have copyright issues to
protect names and identities that belong to them, or schools that incorporate rules about plagiarism.
The idea of originality has already become internalized within our society that assigning a market
meaning with it, just seems natural. If our judicial system has already incorporated ideas of
"originality", then not many people will see any problems with it. However, it is important to look at
the origins and realize how a power came to be to prevent it from being exploited. Another covert
concept integrated within society

Foucault And Agamben Theory Of Society

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Foucault And Agamben Theory Of Society