Panoptic power rests on central inspection plus unseen watching

Evidence

IT may be of use, that among all the particulars you have seen, it should be clearly understood what circumstances are, and what are not, essential to the plan. The essence of it consists, then, in the centrality of the inspector’s situation, combined with the well-known and most effectual contrivances for seeing without being seen. — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 152

Categorization

• DEFINE: Bentham himself defines the essence of the plan: centrality of the inspector combined with seeing-without-being-seen — the exact features Foucault later formalizes as panopticism.
• XREF: Directly the core of the panopticon concept as Foucault and later Orwell’s telescreens instantiate it. — connects to: The panopticon’s power rests on a fiction at its core — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 31; Apparent omnipresence of the inspector sustains discipline — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 33; Panoptic power derives from invisible omnipresence rather than real presence — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 38 (+9 more)

Related

• Panoptic power derives from invisible omnipresence rather than real presence (similarity 0.89)
• Power functions automatically when subjects believe they are always visible (similarity 0.86)
• Surveillance-based power operates by optics rather than force (similarity 0.85)
• Constant visibility captures subjects better than darkness and enclosure ever did (similarity 0.85)
• Feeling watched matters, but actual inspected time must also be maximized (similarity 0.83)
• Apparent omnipresence of the inspector sustains discipline (similarity 0.83)
• An opaque dummy object substitutes for the inspector in the lantern undetected (similarity 0.82)
• A centered watcher who sees all cells is inevitably visible from all cells (similarity 0.82)
• The power to not-see is constitutive of seeing itself (similarity 0.82)
• Effective surveillance is visible yet permanently unverifiable (similarity 0.82)
• The panopticon’s power rests on a fiction at its core (similarity 0.82)
• Even imperfect invisibility can sustain the illusion of constant surveillance (similarity 0.82)
• The Panopticon’s central vantage mirrors the panorama’s sovereign gaze (similarity 0.81)
• The panoptic inspector must hide for fear his fictional divinity will be exposed (similarity 0.81)
• The panoptic machine’s power is kept from tyranny by public observability of its observers (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Surveillance-based power operates by optics rather than force #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 273
• Power functions automatically when subjects believe they are always visible #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 313
• A centered watcher who sees all cells is inevitably visible from all cells #qualifies (0.80) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 295
• Feeling watched matters, but actual inspected time must also be maximized #qualifies (0.72) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 153