Michel Foucault’s Power/Knowledge: The Interplay of Authority and Discourse

These excerpts from "Michel Foucault - Power Knowledge.pdf" are interviews and discussions between Michel Foucault and various other intellectuals discussing the nature of power, particularly how power is exercised through knowledge. Foucault argues against traditional views of power as repressive and instead emphasizes how power creates knowledge, which in turn reinforces and reproduces power structures. This discussion delves into the history of institutions like prisons and hospitals and examines how they have been shaped by power relations and used to control and discipline populations, especially in the context of sexuality and madness. He also explores how these power dynamics are reflected in a variety of disciplines, such as medicine, geography, and even the "science" of crime.