This class will explore the role that Jewish thought played in the creation of the modern idea of the prison via the character of Philo of Alexandria. We will read Philo's version of the Joseph story, compare his account of Joseph's prison to other Jewish versions of incarceration, and learn about how Philo's understanding of the prison may have made modern ideas about incarceration possible.

Jacob Abolafia is a Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. He is the author of The Prison Before the Panopticon: Incarceration in Ancient and Modern Political Philosophy. He completed his PhD in Political Science at Harvard, and has taught philosophy and political theory in the U.S. and Israel.