Enlightenment ‘man’ served as a limit on power, not a target for correction
Evidence
But, at the time of the Enlightenment, it was not as a theme of positive knowledge that man was opposed to the barbarity of the public executions, but as a legal limit: the legitimate frontier of the power to punish. Not that which must be reached in order to alter him, but that which must be left intact in order to respect him. Noli me tangere. It marks the end of the sovereign’s vengeance. The ‘man’ that the reformers set up against the despotism of the scaffold has also become a ‘man-measure’: not of things, but of power. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 126
Categorization
- DEFINE: Establishes the crucial distinction between ‘man’ as legal limit (pre-1800) versus ‘man’ as corrective target (19th century penal science).
- XREF: Sets up the pivot the reader needs: man-as-limit will become man-as-object of correction in the carceral disciplines, linking to the internalized panopticon thesis. — connects to: Power produces the individual rather than merely repressing it — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 301; Said held that Orientalism cannot be corrected by factual research because it is power. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 205; The Enlightenment accepts only what conforms to computation and utility (+2 more)
Related
- Enlightenment mechanism denied man’s historical capacity for development. (similarity 0.79)
- The Enlightenment liberated man only to enslave him more effectively (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Power produces the individual rather than merely repressing it
#corroborates(0.82) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 301 - Said held that Orientalism cannot be corrected by factual research because it is power.
#corroborates(0.75) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 205