Bentham claimed one architectural idea could reform all of society

Evidence

What would you say, if by the gradual adoption and diversified application of this single principle, you should see a new scene of things spread itself over the face of civilized society? – morals reformed, health preserved, industry invigorated, instruction diffused, public burthens lightened, economy seated as it were upon a rock, the gordian knot of the poor-laws not cut but untied – all by a simple idea in architecture? — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 279

Categorization

• XREF: This is the exact totalizing ambition Foucault describes — a single disciplinary architecture supposed to reform morals, health, industry, and instruction throughout society. Connects to the reader’s panopticon thesis grounding. — connects to: Bentham sought to diffuse disciplines through the entire social body — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 325
• BMF: The claim that one architectural principle could reform all of civilization echoes the total design that rules Oceania in Orwell’s 1984 — though that novel isn’t in this library, the resemblance in ambition is striking.

Related

• Bentham sought to diffuse disciplines through the entire social body (similarity 0.87)

Broader Connections

• Bentham sought to diffuse disciplines through the entire social body #expands (0.95) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 325