FOUCAULT: TRUTH AND POWER
Michel Foucault is probably a genius. The overarching concept that most interests me is the concept of "metapower" (p. 122). The way I see it every discourse (science, for instance) is based on the regime of power "presently acceptable" and changing over time. Therefore, there are "not simply new discoveries, there is a whole new regime in discourse and forms of knowledge" (p.112) Through his research and theory of discourse of power, Foucault reaches ever discipline in the tradition of earlier philosophers such as Descartes, but in a revolutionary way. I think he "hails"us to see the arriere-plan underlying all disciplines:
history (I would like to spend some time on his theory of discontinuity and his new way of looking at history-pp 112, 114, 117- , I am not sure I quite get it. ), science, psychology and psychiatry, antrhopology, political economy, politics, every facet of society is affected by this vision of knowledge and power.
For me this means that the approach of everything I do must be holistic, incl. and especially as as an educator.
Truth and Ideology: They way I understand it, it does not matter what is true or false (is there an absolute truth for something is not a relevant question), because what matters is what is "talked about" (discourse) as being true (p. 118), and "whom this discourse serves" (p. 115).
Power and repression: I would like ot spend some time on hte repression of sexuality and especially the discourse of sexuality in the USA, through the lens of Foucault. (p. 119-120, & 125)
Lastly, I find connection between Foucault's definition of the "intellectual," both the specific one and the universal both borrwo something from Gramsci's organic intellectual, especially exciting the time period thet F. refers to (1968), when workers, students, union leaders, AND intellectuals (academics) such as Sartre, Foucault, Althusser were walking hand in hand amnd standing against the police walls yelling (CRS, SS).