Michel foucault power is knowledge

Concept in social philosophy

In critical theory, power-knowledge is a term introduced by the French philosopherMichel Foucault (French: le savoir-pouvoir).

Michel foucault power is knowledge

According to Foucault's understanding, power is based on knowledge and makes use of knowledge; on the other hand, power reproduces knowledge by shaping it in accordance with its anonymous intentions.^[1] Power creates and recreates its own fields of exercise through knowledge.

The relationship between power and knowledge has been always a central theme in the social sciences.^[2]

Foucault's conception

Foucault was an epistemologicalconstructivist and historicist.^[3] Foucault was critical of the idea that humans can reach "absolute" knowledge about the world.

A fundamental goal in many of Foucault's works is to show how that which has traditionally been considered as absolute, universal and true in fact is historically contingent. To Foucault, even the idea of absolute know