For
Foucault, the establishment of the "Human Sciences" such as modern
medicine, psychiatry, criminology etc. is closely related with the development
of new technologies of power such as Panopticism. All these technologies of discipline
turned the individual into an object of scientific discourse (Here Foucault plays on the double meaning of discipline). Foucault hold the
these sciences evolved within institutions who needed a new kind of information
in order to improve their functionality (such as hospitals of prisons). The
human sciences evolved within these institutions as part of their technology
of power.
The
human sciences play a very important role for Foucault in the production of
disciplined individuals. They position the subject within a context that on the
one hand presumes his unique and separated existence while on the other hand
claim that his this unique existence can be objectively examined, quantified,
compared and classified. We are at one and the same time both subjects and
objects of human sciences. For Foucault, this is not incidental since, as aforesaid,
the human sciences evolved within institutions of power and according to their
needs.
Panopticism / Foucault - summary
Part 1:Foucault's notion of discipline
Part 2: discipline and the production of individuals
Part 3: human sciences
Part 4: disciplinary society
Foucault's panopticism explained
More on and by Foucault:
Foucault - "Of Other Spaces" - summary
Foucault on power and knowledge
Panopticism / Foucault - summary
Part 1:Foucault's notion of discipline
Part 2: discipline and the production of individuals
Part 3: human sciences
Part 4: disciplinary society
Foucault's panopticism explained
More on and by Foucault:
Foucault - "Of Other Spaces" - summary
Foucault on power and knowledge
Recommended books by and on Foucault: