The Linguistic Turn in Discipline & Punish

After reading up on “The Linguistic Turn” in philosophy, a lot began to click in my mind in regards to Discipline and Punish.  If I understand correctly, “The Linguistic Turn” posited that the terms within human languages are not derived from immaterial, universal “categories” that we can come to understand through a sort of Kantian transcendence, but rather that our conceptions of the world and our terms to describe these conceptions are based solely in empirical observation and sensory data. Therefore, when we refer to “categorical” entities such as “a chair,” there is not in reality an objective, universal category, but rather we have taken a raw chunk of language and molded it into a corresponding term that fits our empirical observation of such an item.  For Foucault, the evolution of the prison system is a manifestation of our concepts of the world and all of the ideological baggage that has come along with our empirical observation.  Foucault writes, “The conjuncture that saw the birth of reform is not, therefore, that of a new sensibility, but that of another policy with regard to illegalities” (82).  It is not so much that the reformers are doing a sort of moral calculation as to whether venality of office is unjust, but rather that they have been molded by their observations of a certain time and place in history that have instilled in them a belief that reform is necessary.  While I am apprehensive to buy into the philosophy of The Linguistic Turn (such as the idea that epistemological assertions can only fail to reach an objective reality of the world), Foucault’s expression of the problems of the penal system and it being a manifestation of the conceptions of a time and place in history is certainly enlightening.  

I found these sites useful:

http://www.iep.utm.edu/lang-phi/#SH2b

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Linguistic_Turn.aspx