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Quote by Michel Foucault

“It is one of my targets to show people that a lot of things that are part of their landscape - that people are universal - are the result of some very precise historical changes. All my analyses are against the idea of universal necessities in human existence. They show the arbitrariness of institutions and show which space of freedom we can still enjoy and how many changes can still be made.”

Quote by Michel Foucault

Author

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault was a French philosopher known for his critical analysis of knowledge, power, and discourse. His work covered a wide range of topics, including madness, prisons, sexuality, archaeology of knowledge, and biopolitics. Foucault's ideas have had a profound impact on postmodernism, critical theory, and cultural studies. more

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“I believe that political power exercises itself through the mediation of a certain number of institutions which look as if they have nothing in common with the political power, and as if they are independent of it, while they are not.”

Ifs Believe Looks Political Certain I Believe Common Numbers Exercise Independent Institutions Political Power Mediation

Author:Michel Foucault

“The university and in a general way, all teaching systems, which appear simply to disseminate knowledge, are made to maintain a certain social class in power; and to exclude the instruments of power of another social class.”

Way Made Certain Social Class Teaching Instruments University Social Class

Author:Michel Foucault

“Institutions of knowledge, of foresight and care, such as medicine, help to support the political power. It's also obvious, even to the point of scandal, in certain cases related to psychiatry.”

Helping Care Political Certain Cases Support Institutions Medicine Obvious Related Scandal Psychiatry Foresight Political Power

Author:Michel Foucault

“I'm not ashamed of what I am and that I have curves and that I'm thick. I like my body.”

Body Keys Ashamed Thick Curves

Author:Alicia Keys

“It seems to me that the real political task in a society such as ours is to criticise the workings of institutions, which appear to be both neutral and independent; to criticise and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them.”

Real Seems Political Fighting Violence Tasks Independent Institutions Criticise Political Violence

Author:Michel Foucault

“Political power goes much deeper than one suspects; there are centres and invisible, little-known points of support; its true resistance, its true solidity is perhaps where one doesn't expect it.”

Littles Political Known Support Deeper Invisible Resistance Suspects Centre Political Power Solidity

Author:Michel Foucault

“Probably it's insufficient to say that behind the governments, behind the apparatus of the State, there is the dominant class; one must locate the point of activity, the places and forms in which its domination is exercised. And because this domination is not simply the expression in political terms of economic exploitation, it is its instrument and, to a large extent, the condition which makes it possible; the suppression of the one is achieved through the exhaustive discernment of the other.”

States Government Form Political Term Behinds Class Economic Conditions Expression Activity Instruments Exploitation Dominant Domination Discernment Suppression Insufficient

Author:Michel Foucault

“My point is not that everything is bad, but that everything is dangerous, which is not exactly the same as bad. If everything is dangerous, then we always have something to do. So my position leads not to apathy but to hyper - and pessimistic - activism.”

Ifs Dangerous Position Activism Apathy Pessimistic Hyper

Author:Michel Foucault

“I'm not really interested in courting controversy, but I am interested in exploring issues that other people would deem to be controversial.”

People Issues Exploring Controversy Controversial

Author:Irvine Welsh

“If it's something that I feel uncomfortable with, that's a reason for me to write it. I kind of like to make myself feel uncomfortable. I think if you're starting to feel uncomfortable with something when you're writing it, that's the reason really to push on with it.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Writing Kind Reason Starting Uncomfortable

Author:Irvine Welsh