Das Panoptikum

In the "Panopticon," Jeremy Bentham's ideal prison and educational structure, delinquents are subjected to constant surveillance by a warden who sits at the center of a circular building. But for what purpose? Michel Foucault interpreted Bentham's design in his work "Discipline and Punish" as a prototype for the latent perversion of bourgeois enlightenment, the schizophrenia of a liberalism that always intends good yet consistently produces evil. But is that really true? The first German translation of "Panopticon" reveals the relevance of Bentham's ideas. As the founder of utilitarianism and a proponent of economic liberalism, he was convinced that capitalism was the true key to human happiness—and with the "Panopticon," he aimed to pave the way to happiness for every individual.