Critique of Postmodern Philosophy

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault , generally in his philosophy , has created a system wherein he

examines the relations of power as they are transmuted down in a society (not one

that it is held by individuals - and , indeed , it is not so perpetuated wherein the

refinement of discourse over time allows for the normalization of behaviors and then that

individuals are encouraged , as docile bodies , to adhere to this program of normalization

Foucault locates the origins of this process in asylums and prisons , and considers them an

Enlightenment technological

development , which he calls technologies of the self

But I became more and more aware that in all societies there is another type of technique

techniques which permit individuals to affect , by their own means , a certain number of

operations on their own bodies , their own souls , their own thoughts their own conduct

and this in a manner so as to transform themselves , modify themselves and to attain a

certain state of perfection , happiness , purity , supernatural power . Let us call these kinds

of technologies technologies of the self (Foucault Sexuality and Solitude 367

Foucault locates these technologies of the self at the center of the process of

normalization that has shifted the process of punishment from an outward display of

power as in medieval executions to an internal process in which the prisoner becomes

complicit in his own punishment . By employing these technologies of the self an

increasingly analytical and ever more refined manner power is able to normalize almost

all of life and make the distinction between punishment and education trivial In attempting to diagnose the evolutionary trend of the manner in which

punishment has been historically meted out throughout the ages , Foucault suggests that

there has been a gradual evolution from tactics of raw displays of power to more subtle

forms of control . While this might suggest a certain amount of progress in that it is a

progressive movement towards a less obvious brutal form of maintenance of the status

quo it is theless a pervasive manner of social control and thus the obfuscation of

means of social control over the passage of time , especially since the enlightenment

should not be mistaken for true liberation or the work of real progress toward a deeper

goal of recognize some eternal truth about human rights . Whereas medieval society

employed the public display of punishment in intricate and executions of the most

excruciating form (such as beheading , drawing and quartering , hanging etc ) to help

maintain social by showing the direct result of a failure to comply with law

contemporary society uses more indirect and less overt methods for encouraging its

subjects to adhere to the traditional social . Indeed , where medieval societies used

overt displays of brute force , modern society prefers processes of normalization , which

are less intrusive

Another instrument used to achieve discipline is the normalizing judgment

Instead of punishing offenders for wrong doings , the administrators with power choose to

rehabilitate them to attempt to normalize problem individuals and make them...