Discipline and Punish
The Birth of the Prison
by Michel Foucault, Simon Prebble · first published 1975
51% recommend43% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
History of the Western penal system, from public torture to prisons, tracing how discipline and surveillance spread into schools, workplaces and hospitals. Suits readers who want to rethink punishment and social control.
Common criticism: Dense, hard-to-read prose that some find unquotable
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
English version of "Surveiller et punir : naissance de la prison"
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Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault fundamentally changed the way I look at things like school and work. Essentially, they're systems of discipline and control masquerading as something very different. Skip all the Malcom…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗> The hardships aren't self-imposed, our justice system is specifically and intentionally retributive If you want to know why this is, I would recommend Discipline and Punish by Foucault. Our present systems of justice go back hundreds of years, when a crime was considered an attack on the sovereign, aka the King, or the Prince. Back then crimes were punished by Hanging, or…
on “Tell HN: I'm Afraid We're Shutting Down” ↗…response to incarceration is "criminalization" - that this child has a high probability of connecting with negative forces which will push him further down the path of his darkness. I recommend you read "Discipline and Punish" by Foucault - I think it would open your ideas to the genealogy of some of the ideals underpinning your beliefs and apparent faith in the modern justice system.
on “Meeting A Troll” ↗…urge it on others, likely in the same way that some people turn their friends onto LSD. Much of it is junk, but some of it is gold. For example, Michel Foucault's "History of Sexuality Volume 1" and "Discipline and Punish" permanently changed the way I see the world around me. So when I said I'd like to see a defense, I meant only that -- that I'd enjoy it. And, of course, that John F. Kennedy was not a homosexual: http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/decon.html
on “The Ph.D. Problem ” ↗…it said... That being said my additions to the mix are: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse Dhammapada Tipitaka (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/index.html) Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault Philosophy in the Flesh by George Lakoff
on “Ask HN: Good books?” ↗I also associate Foucault most strongly with Discipline and Punish. But the reason, I confess, is the simply astonishing first pages of the book. For people who have not read it, I recommend it very highly as an example of forceful writing style: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~felluga/punish.html…
on “Foucault’s lecture notes from 1970–71 demolish caricatures of his thought (2013)” ↗…and research that empirically support his observations (in sense of empirical support one often finds in the social sciences and history). He dominates web searches for 'Foucault' quite meritoriously as Discipline and Punish is far more relevant today than 19th century work on the speed of light -- which unless I've missed the removal of the photon from current scientific explanations did not nail the coffin lid on corpuscular…
on “Foucault’s work on power” ↗…choose to measure it, what we choose to ignore, diversity of contexts, etc. are political and ideological decisions. If you would be interested in reading a rather dense and difficult text, Foucault's Discipline and Punish might be of interest.
What? Well, given their dismissal of the whole of the humanities, and the ridicule with which they spoke about Foucault, I doubt they're going to be reading The History of Sexuality or The Archaeology of Knowledge anytime soon. Or am I being too defensive, and mis-judging the post? Some 'continental philosophers' are difficult to read. Derrida is a spectacularly bad writer, for instance. Foucaul
on “The Vacuity of Postmodernist Methodology (2005) [pdf]” ↗Dear HN audience. For almost all of the topics discussed here, if you haven't already, please go read this book: Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison [1] The seminal book on questions like: Where do prisons come from? Why did anyone ever think that they were a good idea? Do they work? Highly recommended [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discipline_and_Punish
on “Study finds putting people in prison increases re-offence rate vs. probation” ↗See also Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault. Foucault uses the Panopticon as a metaphor for how those in power maintain control in modern society. Philosophize This has a really good intro on the topic. Transcript: http://philosophizethis.org/episode-121-transcript/…
on “Our Open-Plan Office Failed, So We’re Moving to a Towering Panopticon (2017)” ↗…job in the history of modern republics was never to maintain "public order", unless by that you mean preventing disruption of existing systems of privilege. I can only recommend reading Michel Foucault "Discipline and Punish" about the society of control, and the roles of the police and judicial system.
on “Trudeau Invokes Emergencies Act” ↗Read Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault.
on “Deschooling Society (1970)” ↗The History of Sexuality - Michel Foucault Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America - Daniel J. Boorstin These books make you look at society in a much more critical manner. The first two are difficult reads, but none…
on “Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?” ↗"History of Sexuality: Volume I" -Michel Foucault "Discipline and Punish" -Michel Foucault "Philosophy in the Flesh" -George Lakoff "Metaphors We Live By" -George Lakoff "Civilization and its Discontents" -Sigmund Freud These books allowed me to look at reality in a completely…
on “Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?” ↗