Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a post-modernist French philosopher and is considered one of the most influential philosophers of modern times. Aside from his critiques of social institutionshis influence can be seen in both the humanities and social sciences. A central theme of Foucault's work is the relationship between power and knowledgemore specificallyhow power controls and defines knowledge.
As an observer and critic of both the penal system and mental institutionsFoucault believed that "schools serve the same function as prisons and mental institutions — to defineclassifycontrol and exploit people" (Despeyroux 78). He held that society and social institutions are controlled through relations of power. While some critics view him as being pessimisticto Foucaultthe value of philosophyif organized according to his methodsis a means of changing the balance of authority over the individual through the exposure of the power structures intended to control us.
Life
Paul-Michel Foucault was born in PoitiersFranceon 15 October 1926the second child of Anne Malapert and Paul Foucaulta prominent and wealthy surgeon and professor of anatomy. His father wanted the young Michel to follow in his footsteps and become a doctorbut claiming his ambitions were affected by World War IIFoucault thought otherwise. He entered the distinguished graduate school École Normale Supérieure in 1946graduating in 1951 with degrees in philosophy and psychology. It was while he was a student that he allegedly made his first attempt at suicidewhichaccording to one historiandemonstrated a self-destructive tendency in his character (Oliver178).
After graduatinghe left France to escape the conservative sexual mores of the post-war French culture. He choseinsteadto travel for several yearsteaching in SwedenPolandand Germany.
He returned to France in 1960 and taught philosophy and psychology at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. He published his first book Madness and Civilization, an analysis of the treatment of madness in the Middle Ages and beyond.
In 1970he was elected to the most prestigious Collège de Francebut by the late 1970sa disillusioned Foucault quit teaching and traveled the world until he died of an AIDS-related disease in 1984. Jeremy Stangroom in his The Great Philosophers wrote that Foucault lived his life as if he were driven by the need to "transcend both physical and cultural limits" (155)
Influences
Aside from the writings of the existentialist Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)Foucault found solace and inspiration in the works of the controversial German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Foucault wrote:
Nietzsche was a revelation to me. I felt that there was someone quite different from what I had been taughtI read him with great passion and broke with my lifeleft my job in the asylumleft France. I had the feeling I had been trapped.
(quoted in Despeyroux79)
While Foucault may have disagreed with other philosophers – e.g. Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud – he drew inspiration from Nietzsche. Nietzschelike Foucaultchallenged traditional philosophy.
Major Works
Michel Foucault's major works cover such topics as human sexualitythe systems of thoughtand the penal system:
- Madness and Civilization (1961) – an analysis of the treatment of madness from the Middle Ages to the modern day
- The Birth of the Clinic (1963) – a history of the development of the clinic as a medical institution and the application of medical knowledge
- The Order of Things (1966) – an analysis of the history of human sciences
- Discipline and Punish (1975) – an analysis of the history and changes in the penal system
- The History of Sexuality (1976) – a multivolume analysis of the changing attitudes toward human sexuality in the Western world
Power & Knowledge
The Order of Things and Discipline and Punishdemonstrate how Foucault wanted to create a new direction for French philosophy. To accomplish this goalhe drew upon such academic disciplines as philosophyhistorypsychologyand sociology. Through his understanding of the correlation between power and knowledgehe wanted to demonstrate how both power and knowledge interact to produce an individual or the self that is constituted as a knowingknowableand self-knowing subject in the relations of power and discourse. This new direction necessitates both a rethinking of the concept of power and an examination of the relationship between power and knowledge.
Foucaultlike Nietzscheargued that knowledge and power are inseparable; power and knowledge imply one another. Without powerthere is no knowledgeand without knowledgethere is no power. To Foucaultpower is more than just the ability of one person to persuade another person to do what he might otherwise not want to do.
According to Philip Stokes in his Philosophy: The Great Thinkers, Foucault's intent throughout his work was to focus on what people generally consider to be knowledge – i.e. concepts such as reasonnormalityand sexuality – concepts through which they can understand themselves. This rethinking can be difficult because these concepts do not evolve along a specific path of progress. Any new concept of knowledge can be difficult to definefor it means something totally different from one culture to another and from era to another. It changes in response to the needs of authority to control and regulate the behavior of the individual.
One of Foucault's aims as a philosopher was to expose the hidden structures of power. In order to find these hidden structureshe used genealogies – an idea taken from Nietzsche's On the Genealogies of Morals. This approach is a historical consideration of the notions of both truth and falsehoods as well as good and evil and how these concepts uphold power within a society. One of Foucault's genealogies is his Discipline and Punish. In ithe writes about an 18th-century public execution. This depiction of an execution illustrates a point of evolution from the methods of punishment that centered on the body to the more modern focus of punishment on the mind. This change reflects the development of what he called "the disciplinary society."
Modes of Objectification
Philosophy has long been intent on categorizing the human existence. Through categorizing the psychologicalmoraland status of peoplesociety could then be organized accordingly. Philosophers such as Karl Marx (1818-1883) contributed to this concept by his creation of such categories as proletariat and bourgeoisie. Foucault was the first philosopher to understand – albeit disagree with – this tendency and its consequences. He contended that in Western societies there are three modes of what he termed 'objectification'which serve as a way to treat people as objectsnot human beings. These three modes are:
- dividing practices
- scientific classification
- and subjectification
In his explanationsit should be notedthat he drew many of his examples for all three modes from his experiences studying the penal system and mental institutions. Using a mental institution as an examplein dividing practicespeople become objects by distinguishing and separating them from their peers on the basis of various distinctions such as normal and abnormalsane and insaneor the permitted and the forbidden. It is through these dividing practices that people are categorized as madprisonersor mental patientsidentities through which they can recognize themselves and be recognized by others. In his book Madness and CivilizationFoucault analyzed how this mode was established as a specific category of human behavior allowing for people to be detained in institutions.
In the mode of scientific classificationdistinctions are accomplished through the practices of the human and social sciences. For examplemental illness can be broken down into various categories. In the 19th centurythe human body was treated as an object to be analyzedlabeledand curedwhichaccording to Foucaultis still in practice today.
Lastlysubjectification is slightly different from the other two modes; it refers to the way in which people actively consider themselves as objects. The desire to understand oneself leads to one confessing one's innermost thoughtsfeelingsand desires to oneself and others. Through these confessionsone learns how to change oneself. In the endthis process of the objectification of the individual is linked to a historical change in the nature of power and to developments in the areas of human and scientific knowledge.
Penal System & Madness
The nature of power has changed over the centuries. In the 17th century state power began to make its presence known in all areas of a person's life. With the arrival of industrial capitalismthe state moved away from an era of physical force as a kind of negative power and began to focus on the growth and health of its population. One area of change was in the penal system. In the Westthe use of torture and physical abuse changed from the focus on the body to the soul or mind.
Foucault made reference to the utilitarian Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and his Panopticon where punishment was meant to be a method of reform. Bentham's idea employed supervisionobservationsafetyand individualization. Under 24-hour watcheach person was isolatedalonein his cellwatched by guards from a centrally located observation tower. Howeverthe prisoner had no way of knowing if he was being watchedso he had to act as if he werethereby becoming his own guard. Foucault believed it brought together powerknowledgeand the control of space into a simpleintegrated disciplinary technology. Similarlysociety exerts power to produce individuals who police themselves on matters of socialmoralphysicaland psychological normality.
Conclusion
Foucault's concern with the matters of power and its control of knowledge was mirrored in his political activities and interest in such areas as LGBTQ+ rightsprison reformmental healthand the welfare of refugees. Foucault's importance is that he showed how power operated; its ability to create human bodieshuman subjectsand populationswhich in various ways are surveyedcategorizeddisciplinedand controlled.
