Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault - Essay Example Thesis: Power was the fulcrum around which all else revolved during the Classical period and through Foucault’s examples and arguments we understand how the body was debased through coercion and control, but gradually there came about a shift in power relations which we are experiencing today. In Foucault’s words - â€Å"Perhaps we should abandon the belief that power makes mad and that, by the same token, the renunciation of power is one of the conditions of knowledge. We should admit, rather, that power produces knowledge†¦.† (Michael Foucault, 1977, pp. 27/28) According to Foucault, both power and knowledge compliment each other and go hand in hand together. He explains that power relations cannot exist without the field of knowledge and in the same way, it is knowledge that contributes towards power relations. In Part I, Foucault speaks about torture that was used as a tool to discipline the body during the 18th century, giving us examples of torturous p enalties that were meted out during those days such as public executions. E.g. Damien’s torture (pgs. 3-5) This period of torture resulted in the ushering in of a new penal system for Europe and the United States. New theories involving law and crime were introduced while the ancient laws and customs were discarded and the new reforms were based on the political justification of punishment. According to Foucault, â€Å"justice no longer takes public responsibility for the violence that is bound up with its practice†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Michael Foucault, 1977, p.9) However, with the introduction of the new penal system in our society today, judges have to judge something more than the crime and part of their powers are distributed to other authorities. â€Å"Today, criminal justice functions and justifies itself only by this perpetual reference to something other than itself, by this unceasing reinscription in non-juridical systems.   It’s fate is to be redefined by knowl edge† (22). In Part II, Foucault sheds light on ‘Punishment’. During this period punitive practices were redefined through refinement. Cold blooded criminality morphed into a criminality of fraud. This complex mechanism laid more emphasis and value on more stringent methods of surveillance and effective techniques of getting information which critics called ‘a bad economy of power.’ (79) The eighteenth century saw many reforms in the legal system such as new techniques and tactics for refining and regularizing the art of punishment and reducing the economic and political costs by making it more effective. In Part III, Foucault discusses about ‘Docile bodies’ that was directed towards coercion and supervising the activity rather than the result. In Foucault’s opinion, discipline serves to create docile bodies by disassociating the power from the body. On one hand, it increases an individuals capacity and aptitude but on the other ha nd, it arrests the flow of energy and brings about subjection. According to Foucault, â€Å"disciplinary coercion establishes in the body, the constricting link between an increased aptitude and an increased domination† (138) Among Foucault’s Disciplinary techniques, the one I have chosen for discussion is – ‘Control of Activity.’ Foucault describes discipline as a constant controlling of the activities,