Introduction
The French philosopher, Michel Foucault, also being a social theorist, historian and critic, was one of the most influential critical thinkers of the 20th century. His philosophical theories address the issues of power and how it is used in controlling social systems, knowledge, and how knowledge equally controls power. His theories are popular up to date in the academic arena; he is among the most influential postmodern philosophers (Michel 12).
There are various books written by Foucault; one of them is Birth of the Clinic which was published in 1963. The main theme of the book is the struggle that people lead against those who have power in the society, in other words, against wealthy and influential people. The main concern of Foucault consists in the way technology has influenced quest for power among the ruling class in the society, and also the reason as to why the society is violating the rules of government.
In the book, Discipline and Punishment, Foucault focuses on the issues of domination and power. He expresses how the elite dominate the less fortunate memebers of the society by means of their power and influence. He shows how negative societal rules have damaged human moral norms, as well as the oppresing role the government plays. Foucault’s views on prisons and psychiatric hospitals are clearly evident in his books The History of Madness published in 1961, and in Discipline and Punish that was published 14 years later, in 1975.
The latter book was created in a Parisian hospital. Foucault expresses strong dislike and anger in regards to what in his view was moral hypocrisy in modern psychiatry (Foucault 265). Branding mad people as mentally ill who are in need of medical treatment does not offer any medical solution. This concept was developed during the 17th -18th centuries and did not offer any amicable solution, rather it gave the perception that madness is a course of nature.
Foucault viewed the previous controlling methods and exclusionary practices on mad people and lepers as a form of institutionalizing “unreasonable” members of the society. The current treatment does not have any significance in terms of change. Treatments, such as the use of straitjacket and freezing showers are applied until the victim internalizes the pattern of judgment and punishment (Foucault 265).
Foucault was striving to make a reform according to which punishmesnt of a criminal would be more humane, instead of torture and imprisonment along with other practices that were being conducted at that time. Emphasis is made on how effective this alternative methods are compared to the other ones; it has a positive approach that tends to be effective.
He viewed prison systems of forced discipline and constant supervision as the reasons to cause the instances of broken will of a prisoner, making a him/her a docile body, which is easy to control by those in authority. According to Foucault, prisons did not meet their objective of punishing the criminal nor reducing crime (Foucault 265).
The existence of prisons that are seemingly not solving the problems of crime in the society is benefitial to the ruling class (Foucault 265). Criminality is believed to be used by the ruling class to prevent any conformation or civil uprise that may come up. According to Foucault, the lower class groups commit crimes in order to show rebellion against the social elite and the social systems (Foucault 276).
Foucault sees prison system as a failure because it is used by those in power to continue oppressing the poor or those who advocate for change. His views consisted in the fact that either people resist and refuse the societal discipline and are labeled as criminals, or submit to it at the expense of loss of their identity (Foucault 277).
Is God Dead?
The term God has different meanings for different people. Some would define God as a single deity and a supernatural creator of the universe and humans; some get a notion of the God as a being that is supreme, omnipotent, omnipresent and independent. A God incidentally refers to a being that is mythical worshiped in a religion; on the other hand, others term God as science.
Most people believe that a supreme being is in control of the creation of the universe, while others do not believe that God exists; such believes are characterized by an individual faith that he/she possesses.
Religious people, no matter what religion they belong to, believe in the existence of God, while atheists oppose the claims of the existence of a supernatural and supreme being. Both groups believe either in the existence or non-existence of God (Bruce 269). As times and cultures change, the issues of spirituality and belief also take a consecutive turn.
Friedrich Nietzsche through his works made a declaration that ‘God is dead’; this phrase though leads to a lot of misunderstanding. Many have misinterpreted the phrase to mean the end of God or a literal death of God. His phrase pointed out to the reliance of the western world on religion as a source of meaning. Nietzsche’s works express the concern about the rising atheism, religion decline and the deficiency of a moral authority.
Nietzsche in his work emphasizes that the absence of a higher moral authority could cause the world to plunge into chaos. Nietzsche explains the phrase in terms of God being ‘dead’ in the heart of a modern man. The dead God, he explains, is a resultant effect of science and rationalism. Some critics and philosophers, however, make claims that humanity does not need a higher divine authority so as to live a morally good life.
A cover story in the Time News Magazine entitled Is God Dead? on April 8 1966, highlighted the concerns of various philosophers and theologians in God’s role in a world that is increasingly becoming secular. The highlight from the article that 97% of Americans believed in God shows how most individuals still have acknowledgement for God, although 27% of the Americans said that they were deeply religious.
The modern society has witnessed less acknowledgement of God in the society. The modern society progressively appears to become more secular than before. God is being abandoned by people in their daily life because of modern science that eliminats the need for the religion to give an explanation of the natural world. Nietzsche’s fears of moral degradation and a godless society is food for thought for everyone.
Wether there is God or not is a big question that is still in debate; the best way to answer it is by acknowledging that there is a supreme being that created the universe. It does not matter what religious beliefs one has, we must appreciate the fact that religion is the source of life and power that drive us day in, day out. The assumption that there is no superior being should be discarded based on the fact that a superior being exists since it is he, who created us.
Works Cited
Bruce, Steve. God Is Dead: Secularization in the West. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub, 2002. Print
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Pantheon Books, 1977. Print.
Foucault, Michel, and Jean, Khalfa. History of Madness. London: Routledge, 2006. Print.
Friedrich, Nietzsche. God is Dead: Philosophy-index, 2002. Web. <http://www.philosophy-index.com/nietzsche/god-is-dead/>.
Michel, Foucault. Michel Foucault: (1926-1984). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2003. Print