《Michel Foucault Key Concepts》Reading Note
PART ONE POWER
Foucault’t theory of power by Richard A. Lynch
Foucault’s analyses of power are simultaneously articulated at two levels, the empirical and the theoretical. （namely, historically and theoretically）
tradition: sovereign power–> pyramid model.
Foucault: power can be built up from the bottom of a pyramid.(reconceive)
principal 校长、院长
contract a disease 患病
inhalation 吸入
We will focus upon his most condensed and generalized presentation of power**[writing accumulation]**.
the basic characteristics of power according to Foucault’s theory: a network of force relations throughout society, relations that are characterized by resistance and which interact by means of local tactics and larger strategies. Since these characteristics serve to describe not only modern forms of power such as disciplinary power, but also earlier forms, they represent the substance of Foucault’s theory of power.
Nevertheless, he did refer to his own project as a theory: his task “is a question of forming a different grid of historical decipherment by starting from a different theory of power”
Foucault’s theory of power suggests that power is omnipresent, that is, power can be found in all social interactions.
- egality == equality
- be co-extensive with 与…完全一致，指两个范围或概念完全相同或重叠
- school of thought
- be apt to == be inclined to(?) == be easy to(?)
Foucault first distinguishes his own theory from three mistaken, inadequate or misleading conceptions of power (each of which corresponds to a tradition or school of social thought, as I note below in brackets
[T]he word power is apt to lead to a number of misunderstandings – misunderstandings with respect to its nature, its form, and its unity. By power, I do not mean “Power” as a group of institutions and mechanisms that ensure the subservience of the citizens of a given state [such as characterize many liberal analyses]. By power, I do not mean, either, a mode of subjugation which, in contrast to violence, has the form of the rule [typical of psychoanalytic approaches]. Finally, I do not have in mind a general system of domination exerted by one group over another [i.e. class oppression], a system whose effects, through successive derivations, pervade the entire social body [as in many Marxist views].
