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A 9 page research paper that examines Bentham's conception of the Panopticon and Foucault's views on its detrimental effects. The writer argues that modern society should be wary of the panoptical surveillance that is available with current technology—no matter what rationalizations are offered by business and corporate interests. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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9 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KE9_99ispy.doc
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surveillance camera located in common areas of a workplace did not violate the workers right to privacy (Bohling 41). Increasingly, the implied assumption of employers has been that only those
employees who have nefarious purposes in mind would object to the eye of Big Brother always looking over their shoulder. What this assumption overlooks, of course, is the psychological ramifications
of such surveillance, which have been explored by novelists such as Orwell, but also the intrinsic relationship between surveillance, knowledge and power. Eighteenth century political philosopher Jeremy Bentham imagined
a device intended to revolutionize penal institutions?the Panopticon. Benthams "Panopticon" was a structure in which a series of adjacent cells surrounded an open area that had at its center a
tower where an prison official could keep watch without being observed. The unique feature of this arrangement was that the occupants of the cells could never be certain as when
they were being observed. Therefore, the Panopticon achieved the effect of perpetual observation, conducted anonymously, with only a slight expenditure of manpower. The Panopticon In the preface to Benthams
book, "Panopticon," he stated that his goals for this "inspection house" were "Morals reformed?health preserved?industry invigorated ?instruction diffused?public burdens lightened..." (39). Despite Benthams good intention, Michel Foucault in "Discipline and
Punish" (DP) has pointed out that in actual application, the Panopticon became more of a laboratory than a corrective institution, which proved the old saying that "the cure" can often
be "worse then the disease" (89). Bentham intended the Panopticon to replace the dark and dank "houses of security" that were so common throughout England with a bright and
salubrious "house of certainty (Foucault DP 202). Instead the Panopticon developed to become an unscrupulous method of inquisition that led to the creation of fear and paranoia. Foucault refers to
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