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Michel foucault philosophy
Foucault's theories
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Michel foucault philosophy
Foucault's theories
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, he contrasts the settings of the city and beyond the river by conveying their differing moral opinions shown through conflicting point of views. Beyond the city and across the river was a whole other world comprised of people who thrived in their philosophical ways of life. On the other side of the spectrum is the city, which is the hub of censorship in the novel, opposing all that those across the river stand for? Thus creating a strong position for each setting and the beliefs of both.
(Orwell 3-4). In 1984, telescreens are everywhere, they speak, record, and scan all areas within its reach. These are designed to spy on people, never allowing anyone to ever be alone, lessening the number of people that will rebel against Big Brother. Society is constantly around technology (not much of a choice), people are thought police that will see that you are guilty of committing a thought crime (thinking any bad thought against Big Brother). In this novel, thoughts are not private anymore.
As Orwell describes Winston’s flat he depicts a “telescreen”(Orwell, 1) with the caption “Big Brother is always watching you.” (Orwell, 2). Orwell places concept of society always being watched by the government as an allusion to the Soviet secret police always watching society for rebellious thoughts. As Winston is writing his book criticizing Big Brother, he notes that writing this book is “a crime punishable by death.” (Orwell, 62).
The issues presented in George Orwell's 1984 surrounding basic human rights and the government's ability to spy on people is still relevant in today's society. There have been several accounts of privacy invasions surrounding governments of different countries spying on their citizens and surveillance cameras being streamed to various public websites. These issues make the definition of privacy vary, when it should be set in stone. Privacy isn’t something that should change depending on who you are. There are instances when privacy should be limited and it those cases it is for the right reasons.
In the book, Brave New World written by author Aldous Huxley back in 1932 had many themes that he had basically predicted to happen in today’s day and age. One of these topics is the enhanced but also abundant use of security/surveillance. Plenty of times in Brave New World Huxley talks about how security/surveillance work in his made up society. The idea of being able to control and see what is going on in the society at a very high level. Relates to the high intensity of the security/surveillance levels that we have in today’s day and age.
In this dystopia of the modern world, Orwell highlights the constant surveillance of the population and contrasts that is this even more drastic than the Catholic Church’s practices of the Middle Ages, which was known for watching its believers closely. He stated that “part of the reason for this was that in the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance.” (page 259). In Orwell’s society, telescreens are also used to control citizens in addition to the propaganda they broadcast. Without doubts, this could be compared with the modern world intelligence services.
The government and its effect on society is always a controversial and frequently discussed topic amongst today’s people. Whether it is how politicians swindle peoples’ money or the various ways that the government abuses its power, people always have criticism for what they believe to be flawed. In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the author conveys his belief that limiting the privacy of the individual is the government’s ultimate means of controlling its citizens through the wall mounted devices called telescreens as well as the brutal, and ever present though police. The idea that the individual has no power because they have no privacy is conveyed through the existence of the telescreens.
Surveillance 1984, by George Orwell, is a magnificent dystopian novel about a society with a totalitarian government. Winston, the protagonist in 1984, is a confused resident in the city of Oceania. He is constantly questioning the government in a society where an opinion is not allowed. Surveillance is a method that the government uses to monitor all citizens and keep them under control. The government uses surveillance through telescreens, the Thought Police, and people who seem friendly, but are not.
Panopticon is when government is trying to control large populations by watching them without the persons knowledge. The term panopticon comes from the design of a prison where cells were built around a central tower guards could see into every cell by the help of mirrored windows. Upon some further investigating the term panopticon also is derived from a giant in Greek mythology Panoptes that was a watchman with one hundred eyes. This can be important to make sure things run as smoothly as possible and rules are established and followed. Especially when Van Belle is referring to some one getting a ticket and having to sell their car to pay off their ticket.
George Orwell’s 1984 is a precautionary tale of what happens when the government has too much control in our lives. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is at odds in a world in which he is not allowed to counter the government’s surveillance and control. Perhaps more striking is the noticeable relationship between the novel and modern society. In George Orwell’s novel 1984 the book predicts the surveillance of Big Brother in modern day societies.
Universal Goals for Charles Fourier’s Utopian Society Many of the utopian writers have themes that we can see in their writings. In Selections Describing the Phalanstery, it can be seen that Charles Fourier’s ideal utopian land focuses on the unity of its people and the efficiency of the society. He believes to be a functioning successful society everything structured within it can be broken into three categories.
He believed in the whole modern society, diffuse power has been immersed in all aspects of life. It can be captured in the small places. This diffuse power is not necessarily rely on the unified state machine, but in various specific areas. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the mechanisms of discipline gradually extended throughout the entire society. As we can see, modern factories, schools, military barracks, hospitals and prisons are to some extent similar to each other; this is what Foucault calls “the advent of disciplinary society”.
Sugar is one of the easiest components to hide in the food industry considering the fact it is in a shocking 70 percent of all packaged foods. Sugar consumption has widely varied over the past few centuries, ranging from eating to drinking to mixing. While most people believe a little bit above twenty grams of sugar is recommended a day, most people do not know that could still even be way too much for us to consume. Most single serving candy bars contain all that sugar or even far beyond that. As is if it were not any more complex than food labels, people have been mislead even more every single day and are still not aware of the dangers that sugar has on their body..
Foucault describes the notion of disciplinary power as a modern form of power which can be described as being productive rather than repressive (Hook, 2004). This is done in the sense of ‘bring things into being’, and producing both the discipline of psychology as knowledge as well as subjective effects. Subject effects include individuality and the soul (Hook, 2004). Hook (2004) further states that disciplinary power is related to a set of techniques, these being certain assessments and procedures that treat subjects while measuring and monitoring them. This is done so as to normalise deviant subjects further.
Based on Stuart Hall’s (2006) discussion of Foucault’s theory of discourse, a discourse is generally consisting of a group of statements that together offer a way of talking about a par-ticular knowledge on a certain topic. Many individuals can produce it together, in different institutional settings. The discourse thereby enables the construction of a topic in a specific way which at the same time limits other constructions of the same topic. A discourse is made up not only from one but a multiplicity of statements that all share the same style to talk about the same topic. However, it is not a closed off system, it draws statements from and into other discourses.