Quick Facts

• Born on October 15 1926
• One of the first public figures to die due to HIV
• Influenced by the ideas of Nietzsche and Freud during his life.
• Died on June 25 1984

Life and Work

Foucault was a social theorist and a prominent French philosopher who focused his work on the understanding of societal structures and their relation to power dynamics. Foucault was fascinated by the evolution of how society treated and punished criminals and he documented these changes along with their meanings in his worked titled "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison" which also serves as an insight to the growing surveillance state through his description of the concept known as "panopticism".

Selected Work by Author

Discipline and Punish (1975)

Selected Quote from the Work

"It is the certainty of being punished and not the horrifying spectacle of public punishment that must discourage crime."

Referenced Sources

Seminar Slideshow on Foucault

“Michel Foucault.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Apr. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault.