Among so many changes, I shall consider one: the disappearance of torture as a public spectacle. Today we are rather inclined to ignore it; perhaps, in its time, it gave rise to too much inflated rhetoric; perhaps it has been attributed too readily and too emphatically to a process of "humanization", thus dispensing with the need for further analysis.

Importance: This is an important part of Foucault's argument - the contention that punishment has become gradually humane over time is a too readily made assumption that requires interrogation. With his analysis of modern disciplinary techniques, he shows that punishment has not become more humane, but has restructured its methods.

This is the historical reality of the soul, which, unlike the soul represented by Christian theology, is not born in sin and subject to punishment, but is born rather out of methods of punishment, supervision, and constraint.”

Importance: Foucault uses Christian principles to...