Philosophy

PHIL3331Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. (O)3 ch [W]

This course concentrates on two central themes: the first is Foucault’s perception of the "genealogy" of the social sciences in relation to the practices of incarceration and punishment in mid-eighteenth century Europe. The second follows his perception of contemporary interpretations of self-identity as they have been generated by: the continued growth of penal institutions, the social sciences as disciplines of “subjectivity”, the distinction between torture and punishment, and subjective vs. objective surveillance.

Open to 2nd year students and above.