SCS 1160 Lecture : Foucault.docx

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Social Sciences
• Course: SCS 1160
• Professor: Jordan Stancil

Document Summary

Foucault writes that the panopticon allows power to be exercised without physical force: [t]he external power may throw off its physical weight[and win] a perpetual victory that avoids any physical confrontation, and which is always decided in advance. Key point: power is not centered in a class or the state it is everywhere. Changed social thought because he shifted the terms of debate away from a. Power is internalized by the individual and can come from anywhere and anyone, it is not in the institutions and acted upon on the subject, it is internalized by you. System of power outside the individual and acts on the individual is rejected by foucault. If what he is saying is true than there is no such thing as the individual existing outside of society. The book is excavating forms of punishment that are more civilized and less destructive.