Michel Foucault's Thought

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In this lesson from a TEACHER we offer you a summary of the thought of Michel Foucault, French philosopher, historian and activist, highly influential in the philosophy of the second half of the 20th century. A critic of modernity, a Nietzschean, and also very marked by Heidegger's thought, he raises questions about the power, responsibility, freedom, sex or the limits of knowledge. His philosophy is a call to reflection, but also to action. If you want to know more about Michel Foucault's philosophy, continue reading this article by a PROFESSOR. We started!

Index

1. The power in the thought of Michel Foucault
2. The microphysics of power
3. Intellectuals and power

Throughout all of his work, Michel Foucault asks questions about power, understanding this, as a power that goes beyond the power of the government. When the philosopher speaks of power, he refers to alltos the forms of power that are exercised in society, and its definition includes the notion of

These power relations are so strong and ingrained that in order for a genuine revolution, it would be necessary to modify the movement that occurs between them. Therefore, these relationships must be analyzed at their lowest levels, microscopic.

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In the The microphysics of power, the author affirms that the analysis of power has been carried out taking into account the relations contrato - oppression, of a legal nature, and which is based on the legitimacy or illegitimacy of power and domination - repression - submission, and that manifests itself in the form of struggle.

The relations of authority that occur between the woman Y the man, Come in the boss Y the employee or within the familyRather than a reflection of the power of the government, they constitute the conditions of possibility, the base on which the power machine rests and keeps in operation. Because power has its origin in other powers and is maintained, thanks to the effects of other powers, which go beyond the economic plane.

"The man is not the representative of the State for the woman. For the State to function as it does, it is necessary that there be from the man to the woman or from the adult to the child very specific domination relations that have their own configuration and their relative autonomy".

These power relations are the ones that occur in the family nucleus, in sex, at work, and within them, playing the role of conditioning and conditioning. Thus, a deep analysis of this phenomenon requires a bottom-up study of all power mechanisms, starting from the "infinitesimal mechanisms", which have their own origin and their own methods, to discover how these procedures have been used by different forms of domination more

"Power is not a phenomenon of massive and homogeneous domination of an individual over others, of a group over others, of one class over others; power seen closely is not something divided between those who possess it and those who do not have it and who endure it. Power has to be analyzed as something that only works in a chain. It is never located here or there, it is never in the hands of some. Power works, it is exercised through a network organization. And in their networks circulate individuals who are always in situations of suffering or exercising that power, they are never the inert or consistent target of power nor are they always the connecting elements. Power travels transversely, it is not still in individuals. "

Foucault does not dissolve the power of the government, but he does speak of small powers or sub-powers integrated into the general power, which is the most important. The main objective of Michel Foucault, is to build a general idea of powerthat includes both the power of the government and the rest of the powers.

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We continue to know the Thought of Michel Foucault to speak now of another of the masterpieces of his philosophy. In this work, Michel Foucault says that since May 1968, lThe masses no longer need intellectuals who possess knowledge, what happens is that there are certain forms of domination that slow down and invalidate it.

For the French thinker, there are power relations in all social strata, and not only in the highest and the intellectuals play an important role here, integrating themselves into this power system as the main agents of "conscience" and discourse.

But for Foucault, the mission of the intellectuals does not consist in placing themselves in front of the masses, but in join them in the fight against the different forms of power in the field in which they operate, this is he “to know ", the" truth ", the" conscience " or speech".

Other important works of the French philosopher would be History of madness in classical times, The birth of the clinic, Words and things, The archeology of knowledge, Watch and punish, History of sexuality Y The hermeneutics of the subject.

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Michel Foucault. The Microphysics of Power. Ed. Planet. 1994