Foucault's Study of Power Theory -- A Textual Study Based on Discipline and Punishment

Abstract

As the basic concept of political philosophy, power has the nature of absolutely dominating social operation. For a long time, political science and sociology have examined how it operates from a top-down perspective. With the development of grand narrative and the rise of structuralism, the theory of power also needs to be further updated to conform to the trend of postmodernism. Through his research on the development of prisons and other institutions, Foucault realized that the operation law of power was not inseparable from political governance as explained by traditional philosophy, but integrated into the lives of all people in an atomic way. In the modern era, the art of domination incorporates this microphysics and develops it into a technology that, unlike the oppressive domination of antiquity, interferes with People's Daily lives in a way that is controlled by the body. The key to this technology is discipline, which operates in institutions that alienate time and space, and also separate man's utility from his capacity to develop, making him part of the social machine. Foucault's micro-power theory may seem very different from the theory of right and Marxism, but it is used in the context of a contractual society, and its purpose is economic, without disconnection. Through micro-power, we can have a clearer understanding of modern state governance under capitalism.