“Knowledge is not for knowing: knowledge is for cutting.” (Michel Foucault: The Foucault Reader)

Foucault has publicised a number of interesting concepts, most of which contradict with modern hegemonic values. We arranged a group meeting to collaborate over his key theories. Whilst reading Foucault’s works I found that most of them were over complicated and prolonged. We decided upon analysing “The Foucault Reader”, because it includes his key ideologies on power/knowledge and discourse. Also we found we’d have more time analysing and discussing the book due to its direct and simplistic discourse.

In this book Foucault rejects the accepted values of power/knowledge, and invents his own. It’s commonly thought of that each individual has a self identity, and that some people possess more power than others. Foucault observes the way in which knowledge/discourse and power are integrated in a modern Western society, and argues that knowledge creates a persons identity. For Foucault those who are in control have the ability to manipulate and contrive a person’s selfhood. “…psychiatric internment, the mental normalization of individuals, and penal institutions… are undoubtedly essential to the general functioning of the wheels of power.” (p.58) Power derives from institutions, rather than the individual. However, Foucault believed that power is not a quality obtained, power is a temporary alternating force. Those who conditionally possess power in a postmodern society would also include churches, schools, the government, and the army, all of which use it as a “discipline”.

Foucault argues that power isn't completely a negative force in society, but has advantages too. "What makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is simply the fact that it doesn't only weigh on us as a force that says no, but that it traverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse. It needs to be considered as a productive network which runs through the whole social body, much more than as a negative instance whose function is repression." (p.61)

Michel Foucault: A Man in Search of the Ultimate Answer (1926 – 1984)

Michel Foucault is a man of many interests, driven by passion and pleasure to make his mark on society. Foucault was a French historian and philosopher, who became most famous for his studies on social establishments. Son of a surgeon, Foucault was heartened to follow in his footsteps, yet Foucault had other plans, and steered his way into Saint-Stanislas School where he began his education in philosophy. During 1946 Foucault entered the most eminent school in France, Exalted for their humanities studies department, “The École Normale Supérièure d’Ulm”. After spending a fair amount of time in education, his instruction was complete by 1951. Foucault graduated with a BA degree in Psychopathology (1947), a BA equivalent degree in Philosophy (1948), and had successfully passed his ‘agrégation’ (1951).

Foucault’s inspiring career activated in 1961 with the release of his first and most compelling works “Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason”. This book beams Foucault's magnetism to madness, unreason and the state of delirium. Foucault accentuates on negative concepts in society and argues that madness and reason are inevitably linked.

Following this Foucault released “The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception” (1963). Here Foucault outlines the advancement of medical cures and diseases. Foucault specifically fashioned the term "medical gaze" to imply the impersonalizing dissection of the individual’s body and self hood. Foucault’s other influential works include: “Death and the Labyrinth” (1963), “The Order of Things” (1966), “Discipline and Punish” (1975), and “The History of Sexuality” (1976-1984).

What fascinates me most with Foucault is his continuous reference to power and knowledge throughout his publications. Foucault was truly a man of power himself, having being the most influential social theorist of the late 20^th century. It is Foucault’s concepts on power and knowledge that we will be discussing in further blog entries.