Foucault's Panopticon: Rise of the Surveillance State

Foucault describes the Panopticon in his famous work Discipline and Punish (1975). While the Panopticon is a model for a prison designed by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, Foucault sees it as much more than that. For Foucault the Panopticon is an architectural figure -- a kind of metaphor -- for modern power relations in general.

As Foucault describes it, in the modern world, power circulates around us through systems of surveillance and self-discipline. We are constantly being watched, measured, and evaluated, and even when we are not, we feel as if we are, and so we conduct ourselves and discipline ourselves into behaving in particular ways. This is how modern power dynamics work and they can be effectively illuminated by Bentham's Panopticon design.

#Foucault #philosophy #surveillance

📚What to Watch Next👇

More videos on Michel Foucault!

📚Foucault: Discipline and Punish

📚Foucault: Power and Knowledge

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
📗 CONNECT WITH ME! I use Instagram to keep in touch with students and friends.

📓 Find more on TIKTOK! ⏱ Short videos on philosophy, books, and life.

📗 STUDY WITH ME: Learn about the Great Books Program at St. Thomas University 🇨🇦

📗 CHECK OUT MY BOOKS:
Shakespeare between Machiavelli and Hobbes: Dead Body Politics

Magic in Early Modern England: Literature, Politics and Supernatural Power

Photo: Jeremy Bentham’s Severed Head
Ethan Doyle White

Used under Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Inside a building at Presidio Modelo, Isla de la Juventud, Cuba.
I, Friman

Used under Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 3.0

[krishall]

The map isn't the land and so surely the more our data print is assumed to be an accurate reflection of our selves, the greater the vulnerability in the system becomes? For example, I have a supermarket loyalty card and everything I buy gives me points. So 'THEY' (erm...Tesco's - I live in the UK and they're a bit like Walmart, I guess?) can build up a complete picture of my dietary habits, theoretically, they could even use this to build a psychological profile of my personality. Ah yes, but what they don't know is that I only buy foodstuffs that I absolutely loathe to eat. I cram it nightly into my gaping maw, choking on every bite, but laughing, Sir, laughing at their foolishness.

[badartwineaunt]

this was such a good explanation !! i needed to review the concept and this is such a solid explanation in a small amount of time

[mico]

Foucault made a mistake and assumed that humans are rational. We see now that some people behave badly anyway regardless of surveillance.

[maxyoung]

Would you argue that social media acts as a panopticon?

[marcosandrey]

Oh boy i hope this word doesnt start getting associated with the manifestation of the soul of a greek guy

[giovaniconte]

This eerily reminds me of the catholic guilt. One actually believes that hes beign watched and judged at every moment at the penalty of eternal torment...good thing they can aways repent. I can only imagine the amount of neurosis it have created.

[aheberpurcell]

The crazy thing about Foucault, is how blind he was to the likelihood of his own ideas rendering the masses increasingly susceptible to totalitarianism.

[yetigriff]

I bet NordVPN would have paid a fortune to sponsor this video 😂

[prechabahnglai]

Was mind blown when my professor shown me this in class about a decade ago.

As liberty loving and efficiency admiring person, I was both appalled and impressed at the same time.

[Havidboi]

Not sure if this has come up in comments, but the original French name of the book isn’t “Discipline and Punish” but « surveiller et punir » or *Surveil* and Punish. And in his article “We other Victorians” really shows how non-criminals enact the microfunctioning of power by ratting ourselves and each other out to the church through the (relatively new) sacrament of “confession.” Love studying Foucault and the ways we subconsciously surveil ourselves and each other.

[danaveye]

Yep. I've worked in a place built like a panopticon. Made sneaking out for a ciggie so much more satisfying

[brentsrx]

Everybody bought a Smartphone. How is your personal panopticon 14? Did you opt for the extra tyrrany option? You can save $.50 a month.

[JayAaronNY]

It’s so wild to me that Focualt was never assigned reading in any of my Philosophy classes.

But Focualt always came up in law school, in queer/gender/disability studies classes, and in sociolinguistics.

I’m glad I was lucky enough to have an interdisciplinary education—and these videos are so great at bringing parts of that to all (and teaching me, or re-teaching me, new things!)

[dwyl]

the panopticon is a video game boss, idk what youre talking about

[saadmerchant]

Fascinating. Imagine AI piloting a Panopticon...

[jackryan]

Thanks for the videos, your videos help supplement my understanding.

[heavybuthappyheart]

Subscribed
Can’t believe how many Foucault videos are absolute smarm
Appreciate your tenor.

[abrahamgomez]

Focault was likely a subject of surveillance because he was in large part a leader of the French Left. This is probably what led him into studying the origins of the states use of surveillance.

[charlesb]

Cctvs everywhere. Who could possibly watch all of them? Do you really think they have that much storage space? Imagine the energy and cost to maintain such a system. I have had my own experience with cctv footage. It was not esay to get the security company to find the person that damaged my bike.

[巫俊霆]

thank you for the video, your videos have helped me immensely thus far especially since i don't have a formal education in philosophy or the like.
would you consider making a video about gadamer on historically effected Bewusstsein?