Michel Foucault

"What makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is simply the fact that it doesn't only weigh on us as a force that says no, but that it traverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse. It needs to be considered as a productive network which runs through the whole social body, much more than as a negative instance whose function is repression"

7 likes

Source: Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucault (2006). “The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature”, The New Press

About the author

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault

Philosopher, Social Theorist

Michel Foucault was a French philosopher known for his critical studies of power, knowledge, and social institutions, particularly in works like 'The History of Sexuality'.

All quotes by Michel Foucault →

Same author

More quotes by Michel Foucault

See all →
Michel Foucault Philosopher, Social Theorist

"'Truth' is to be understood as a system of ordered procedures for the production, regulation, distribution, circulation and operation of statements. 'Truth' is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it. A 'regime' of truth."

Read quote
Michel Foucault Philosopher, Social Theorist

"There is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time power relations"

Read quote