Working Paper No. 102, Knowledge and Power: Towards anIntellectual Biography of Michel Foucault

This inquiry seeks to establish that in his efforts as an intellectual, scholar, and author of books that would include Discipline and Punish [1975], Michel Foucault emphasizes the importance of power and power relations, especially of an authority (such as a sovereign) over the common people. Drawing from Discipline and Punish [1975], this inquiry considers how Foucault’s understanding of genealogy got rooted and shaped by Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique of history; a view which altogether challenged the idea of historical progress, while also revealing the contingent nature of truth. The second section considers how sovereign power evolves into disciplinary mechanisms embedded within modern institutions that would include prisons, schools, and hospitals. The final section examines how the accused are subjected to social constructs and victimized through systems of power-knowledge. We also consider how forms of resistance get generated within such structures. Ultimately, this inquiry argues that for Foucault, power is not simply imposed from above, but rather becomes embedded in and thusly circulates through everyday institutions, shaping both knowledge and the conditions of social life.