What is the Panopticon?
The Panopticon is a type of institutional building and a system of control designed to allow a single watchman to observe all inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether or not they are being watched. The design creates a sense of constant surveillance, instilling discipline not by direct force but by the perception of being watched.
📜 Who Designed It?
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), an English philosopher and social theorist, is the original designer of the Panopticon.
He conceived it in the late 18th century, primarily as a model for prison reform.
Bentham's idea was not only architectural but deeply philosophical—about social control, discipline, and the “power of mind over mind.”
📘 Key Quote from Bentham:
"A new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example."
— Jeremy Bentham, on the Panopticon
This is a direct reference to how surveillance works psychologically rather than physically. The inmate behaves because they believe they might be watched, even if they’re not.
🧠 Conceptual Significance:
Bentham’s Panopticon is a foundational concept in later disciplinary theories, especially in:
Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, where the Panopticon becomes a metaphor for modern surveillance societies.
Scholars like Alan Sheridan (option 3) and Madan Sarup (option 4) have interpreted or written about Foucault, not designed the Panopticon.
Antony Easthope (option 1) was a literary theorist, not related to Panopticon design.
Year-wise PYQs
