Foucault: Power/Knowledge?

Question

i having problem with foucault's power/knowledge theory and god know why i'm taking this stupid units in uni. anyway i'm going to write an essay about his theory but i cant seem to understand his theory, i'm just a first year nursing student.

anyway here's the essay question,
Why are they(power/knowledge) important for our understanding of human being and society?

can someone pls expand the issue?! thanks

Answer 1

My take on it:

Knowledge is anything that is passed on, disseminated through society via the telling; the information (think: seed) needn't be true or correct to be passed along; gossip. A hot topic. The marketing of a concept or thought.

Think popular media, religion, chain letters. Think Yahoo! Answers. The power of perception. You are a nursing student - consider the word "malaria". Mala aria - It means "bad air" in Italian, so named because the common belief was that it was caused by foul air - swamp gases. Untrue, but common knowledge at one time. The truth (nutshell) is that it is a parasitic protozoa transmitted by the bite of a mosquito.

Such knowledge has the ability to create and destroy - a person, and institution - anything - is subject to the collective perception, the majority will, and the telling of tales. If I tell two friends something I believe to be true, and they tell two friends, who tell two friends... that something becomes real and believed, it has the power to control or damage or enlighten regardless of its validity.

True? I'm offering my answer as a valid statement - if it gives you pause for thought, if it has an effect on you, it illustrates the concept nicely. Of course, it may be complete balderdash ... :)

Answer 2

Foucault Power Knowledge

Answer 3

The study of Foucault's thought is complicated because his ideas developed and changed over time. Just how they changed and at what levels is a matter of some dispute amongst scholars of his work. Some scholars argue that underneath the changes of subject matter there are certain themes that run through all of his work. But as David Gauntlett (2002) suggests:

Of course, there's nothing wrong with Foucault changing his approach; in a 1982 interview, he remarked that 'When people say, "Well, you thought this a few years ago and now you say something else," my answer is… [laughs] "Well, do you think I have worked [hard] all those years to say the same thing and not to be changed?"' (2000: 131). This attitude to his own work fits well with his theoretical approach — that knowledge should transform the self. When asked in another 1982 interview if he was a philosopher, historian, structuralist, or Marxist, Foucault replied 'I don't feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning' (Martin, 1988: 9).

– David Gauntlett, Media, Gender and Identity, London: Routledge, 2002)

In a similar vein, Foucault preferred not to claim that he was presenting a coherent and timeless block of knowledge; rather, as he says:

I would like my books to be a kind of tool-box which others can rummage through to find a tool which they can use however they wish in their own area… I would like the little volume that I want to write on disciplinary systems to be useful to an educator, a warden, a magistrate, a conscientious objector. I don't write for an audience, I write for users, not readers.

– Michel Foucault (1974), 'Prisons et asiles dans le mécanisme du pouvoir' in Dits et Ecrits, t. II. Paris: Gallimard, 1994, pp. 523-4).

Answer 4

From my several psychology classes I have learned that all people desire knowledge, and that all relationships eventually boil down to power. In my opinion, knowledge allows us to function in our own lives, while power, which is very related to knowledge, gives us mastery over our lives and the lives of others. It's a bit boiled-down, so I hope that helps you at least a little.

Answer 5

It runs both ways; what is considered true or knowable is a powerful control over how people behave and treat each other, and those who can manipulate such agreement can cause individuals or large swathes of society to behave as they wish.

Answer 6

its the only thing that gage individuality. every people is a differest entity, which distinguished us from every one. Knowledge will kept us wonder to the world we live in, our curiosity will make us inventors, our doubt will lead us into enlightment.