Srivongse, Carol
15269608
Sociology 101B
Xiuying
23 February 2004
HW#3 – Summary of Foucault (p. 3-31)
Michel Foucault was interested in the history of penal punishment and the
relationship between punishment and power. He recognizes that torture has disappeared
as a public spectacle. Overtime, punishment has moved from torture of the body to
torture of the soul. “The disappearance of public executions marks therefore the decline
of the spectacle; but it also marks a slackening of the hold on the body” (10). In previous
times, punishment equaled the crime that was committed; however, Foucault shows that
the body has now become an instrument and now the soul is punished - “punishment has
become an economy of suspended rights” (11).
Foucault also recognizes that judgment of punishment has moved from judges to
other authorities as well. Punishment is no longer solely determined by the crime but
used to treat the criminal. “We punish, but this is a way of saying that we wish to obtain a
cure” (22).
Foucault’s study of punishment is based on four general rules: (1) punishment is a
complex social function; (2) punishment as a political tactic; (3) technology of power the
very principle both of the humanization of the penal system and of the knowledge of
man; and (4) try to study the metamorphosis of punitive methods on the basis of a
political technology of the body. These rules help to show how power is manifested in
punishment and power produces knowledge.
Question:
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I’m still confused about the relationship between punishment, the soul, power and
knowledge how knowledge influences power, but this is probably because we
haven’t really gone over knowledge and power yet.