Posted by rainer ganahl on November 09, 1997 at 07:28:08:
In Reply to: Re:foucault need your advice? what do you believe, differ foucault from other, when it comes to power posted by marks m on November 06, 1997 at 06:34:29:
: Question
: what does foucault mean by "power-Knowledge?
: please discuss with reference to Discipline and punish
well , you have too many questions at a time:
if you read foucault against his own interpretations - and look at him from a kantian, transcentental point of view - then you can find very easily an answer:
for kant, the transcendental question was to find the conditions of knowledge production which he answered with his concept of the a priori categories: time and space.
foucault doesn’t ask this same question but the same question is inscribed in all of his texts: of course, the type of knowledge production is different: since he is interested in a particular kind of knowledge, knowledge that kant ignored at the time.. or would have labeled as ‘unreasonable’.
now, what are the a priori categories in foucault? institutions such as police, medicine, foyers, prisons, literature, administrations, and modes of productions - all these build, forme, put in place matrixes, ‘dispositivs’ (dispositions) of power and knowledge that produce effects upon individuals but also upon these proper institutions... (I named only a few).
now your other questions: body and its effect.... can be traced along that line...
they are an effect of a certain disposition which they also reinforce...
etc...
it is interesting to see how foucault scheme is rather “total” and applicable to all of his subject matters... --- therefore his tremendous success and productivity for everything after him...
BUT --- foucault did a good job in erasing the paths and traces that informed himself...
I find the projection of foucault onto kant the most productive and the least abused way to read foucault (sans oublier)..
r