Disciplinary Themes in Aristotle's Political and Ethical Writings

Abstract

This thesis is an exploratory study of the relationship between Foucault's conception of disciplinary power and the philosophical ideas of ancient Greece as exemplified by Aristotle. Foucault claims that disciplinary power arose only in the 17th and 18th centuries. This thesis demonstrates that there are similarities and parallels between certain facets of Aristotle's ethical and political theory and Foucault's idea of disciplinary power--parallels and similarities sufficiently strong to weaken, if not contradict, Foucault's description of the historical origin of disciplinary power.