Research on the Theory of Power in Foucaults Mid-term Thoughts

Abstract: The concept of power is deeply rooted in everyday life, making it difficult to escape the dominant status assigned by the world. The issue of power is central to Foucaults field of study, where he innovatively proposed a productive view of power and explored its internal relationship with knowledge and subjectivity from a micro-power perspective. On one hand, Foucault posits that the subject is a product of power and primarily analyzes three ways in which power produces subjects, introducing the theory of the death of the subject in modernity. On the other hand, Foucault elucidates the relationship between power and knowledge, asserting that power produces knowledge, but it must also rely on the creation of discourse for its implementation and circulation. This paper then focuses on Foucaults theory of disciplinary power, analyzing how the technologies of discipline in the operation of modern micro-power tame the bodies of modern subjects, thereby forming a disciplinary society. The model of power over the body shifts from the harsh penal practices of the classical period to modern disciplinary training. Foucaults theory of power marks an important turning point in the history of Western philosophy, and his theory of biopolitics provides an innovative understanding of the concept of power from macro to micro levels.