FOUCAULT

V.
BENTHAM
ADRIAN DEYDIER
M 1 S G AT
INTRODUCTION
Born in London (1748); died in 1832
Queens College in Oxford (1764)
Studied Law at Lincolns Inn to become
a barrister BUT never practiced law
Dedicated his life to writing on the subject
of social reform
CONCEPTS
CONCEPTS
One idea hes most known for is his
Panopticon
Its a prison model
Definition: a central tower; the prison is
built around it so that all inmates can be
seen from the tower, but inmates cannot
know if theyre being watched
CONCEPTS
Foucault criticized Benthams legacy as being
one that brought about a society of
surveillance
Foucault, like others, protested against
restraints set by the governments on
individuals (cf. 1968 around the world)
Bentham became the forerunner of the
domination of bourgeois power
CONCEPTS
Benthams key concept: the principle of utility:

Every individual seeks pleasure and to avoid pain

The greatest happiness for the greatest

number
CONCEPTS
Felicific calculus:
Action is so calculated in terms of
intensity, duration, its level of certainty,
its subsequent effects (e.g. if a benefit
becomes a pain on the long run; several
goods are better than just one) and the
number of persons affected by it
CONCEPTS
The overall good is the sum of the
happiness of all individuals, in a way
that reminds us of Adam Smith.
That is why such moral philosophy
bypasses personal and egotistic
wants, in order to allow a general benefit
of the society.
REFORMING
THE PENAL
SYSTEM
REFORMING THE PENAL SYSTEM
In the past, crimes were punished by bloody
revenge
Later, sovereigns imposed the law of
retaliation to stop the circle of irrational
revenge
Under the absolute kings, crimes of lese-
majesty were brutally dealt with: drawing
and quartering
REFORMING THE PENAL SYSTEM
Bentham felt a solution was necessary to put
an end to such an insane penal system:
the Panopticon was born
It was a much preferrable alternative to
the cruel punishments of his time
Influence of Cesare Beccarias ideals of
proportionality and rationality of the penal
law
REFORMING THE PENAL SYSTEM
Inmates where to believe they were under
constant supervision
This feeling of being under always under
scrutiny was how inmates internalized the
norm
It was a transition for deviant individuals to
reform themselves in order to fit in the
society
REFORMING THE PENAL SYSTEM
It came to be viewed as an instrument of
power by Foucault
Panopticism supposedly became the
base of our actual society of surveillance
It is combined with a strategy of
incarceration to impose itself to individuals
Thus prisons, schools, hospitals, mental
institutions are all Panopticons
DIFFERENT
FACETS OF
THE
PANOPTICON
THE DIFFERENT FACETS OF THE
PANOPTICON
The Panopticon wasnt only a penal
institution

It was first a prison (Panopticon, or the

Inspection-House, 1786)
A pauper management facility (Outline of a Work
entitled Pauper Management Improved, 1798)
A school (Chrestomathia, 1817)
THE DIFFERENT FACETS OF THE
PANOPTICON
Benthams panopticism isnt only about
punishment
Foucault doesnt take into account the
evolution of Benthams panoptic paradigm
He focuses on the disciplinary &
surveillance aspects
Each particular Panopticons goal wasnt
control, but education
THE DIFFERENT FACETS OF THE
PANOPTICON
In the Rationale of Judicial Evidence
(1827) law is seen as an evil, but a
necessary evil since it is the only way
society is made possible
The Panopticon becomes the least
harmful way to punish perpetrators
It is a symbolic torture of a time when
liberty has become the most important
THE DIFFERENT FACETS OF THE
PANOPTICON
The Constitutional Code (1830) describes a
reversed Panopticon: its the
surveillance of decision-making in public
functionaries
The PMs office is at the center of an oval-
shaped building
Each ministerial office is surrounding by
waiting rooms for concerned citizens to
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
This makes Bentham the thinker of a liberal
society. In the penal system, and in law in
general, his principle of utility becomes a
humanitarian alternative to disproportioned
punishments.
Transparency is presented as a key to build a
society that integrates all individuals and
calls for their participation in politics