Home / Quotes / Quote by Michel Foucault

Quote by Michel Foucault

“'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.”

Book:The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature

Work

The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature

The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature is a collection of discussions and arguments between the renowned linguist Noam Chomsky and the influential philosopher Michel Foucault. The book delves into their contrasting views on the essence of human nature, examining the roles of language, power structures, and societal influences in shaping human behavior. more

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

“Relations of power "are indissociable from a discourse of truth, and they can neither be established nor function unless a true discourse is produced, accumulated, put into circulation, and set to work. Power cannot be exercised unless a certain economy of discourses of truth functions in, on the basis of, and thanks to, that power."”

Certain Economy Function Bases Relation Thanks Discourse Circulation Knowledge And Power

Author:Michel Foucault

“Financial regulation is the next item on the political horizon, and it doesn't have to be the deathly dull wonk-battle that it sounds like. In fact, if the Democrats do their job, it can just as easily become a platform for addressing the greatest issues of them all.”

Ifs Facts Jobs Political Next Sound Issues Battle Democrat Financial Dull Horizon Regulation Platforms Items Financial Regulation

Author:Thomas Frank

“... we are obliged to produce the truth by the power that demands truth and needs it in order to function: we are constrained, we are condemned to admit the truth or to discover it. Power constantly asks questions and questions us; it constantly investigates and records; it institutionalizes the search for the truth, professionalizes it, and rewards it. ... In a different sense, we are also subject to the truth in the sense that truth lays down the law: it is the discourse of truth that decides, at least in part; it conveys and propels effects of power.”

Needs Different Law Order Asks Records Subjects Effects Produce Demand Function Lays Rewards Discourse Obliged Knowledge And Power

Author:Michel Foucault

“We should not be content to say that power has a need for such-and-such a discovery, such-and-such a form of knowledge, but we should add that the exercise of power itself creates and causes to emerge new objects of knowledge and accumulates new bodies of information. ... The exercise of power perpetually creates knowledge and, conversely, knowledge constantly induces effects of power. ... It is not possible for power to be exercised without knowledge, it is impossible for knowledge not to engender power.”

Needs Should Body Form Causes Impossible Effects Information Objects Exercise Discovery Add Knowledge And Power

Author:Michel Foucault

“At the heart of capitalism is the unification of knowledge and power. As Friedrich Hayek, the leader of the Austrian school of economics, put it, "To assume all the knowledge to be given to a single mind... is to disregard everything that is important and significant in the real world." Because knowledge is dispersed, power must be as well.”