Foucault "punishment Theory" Philosophy

Foucault was one of the contemporary philosophers who were most concerned withpunishment; he used a near-phenomenological method to analyze how the various formsof punishment were used to be in its age. He deconstructed the punishment mechanismwith the Genealogical method, and researched how it changes throughout history. Hebelieved that the evolution of punishment mechanism is always around the differentsituations of acceptance and rejection from people in their respective ages. The mainpurpose of the penalties obtained in this genealogy research is very different from anykind of punishment theories in history. In Foucault’s view，punishment in history is aforce of heteronomy to individual and never generally served. In any era, thepunishment will be refused by the individual who recognizes that in punishment lies invarying degrees. Such refusal is indicative of the brutal performances on the scaffold inthe beginning of its evolution；regarding the prison age, this refusal evolves to acriticism for the punishment theory and for the "truth" behind the punishment theory, soas to expose the trickery which make the punishment theory acceptable. Foucault’scritique linked up the evolution of the punishment mechanism，which traced itsbeginnings from the Enlightenment and gave relevance to the reflection of historicalsocial and cultural values. Through this research of punishment，Foucault depicted anew historical background of social and cultural reflection.