Michel Foucault on Power and Ideology 1926-1984 Follows from Marx's ideas of challenging things and challenged Marx. He uses images of a centaur to illustrate mans force of power. We create ourselves through the world and create discourse. In deciding what is normal we create power relations. Discourse is not a system of belief but something we use to create truth. It's a form of power that goes through us. They subject us and create us through power structures. Suicide, mental health and sexuality are key themes criticised for being too generally historical - a big picture man believes there is no universal understanding that cannot be reached. All categories are to be questioned and challenged. Isaac Newton - enlightenment physicist [positivism] Three assumptions: - EPISTEMIC REALISM - UNIVERSAL SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE - CORRESPONDENCE THEORY: Observers can capture statements of true or false facts. Overturned and questioned by Schrodinger's cat. We cannot remove ourselves from the world we observe. Post-structuralism: How history and culture shapes structures. > Thinks about why we are as we are Subjectivity - Who I am, how I act, how I engage and think. Dividing practices is about how we make categories based on social and physical separation. Scientific classification as enlightenment obsession - creating methods, languages, groups to define ourselves by. This leads to subjectification - the way in which we think/do things, by internalising the categories to determine who we are. Binary categories determined by others to shape the world, determine each other to define the way the world is; binary opposites, inside is good and stable but outside is dangerous. People have different ways of understanding categories. Bentham's Panopticon - A form of disciple, Bentham thinks of a brothel but Foucault a prison. - Central guard lower with visible individual cells surrounding it - so constant surveillance as the prisoner never knows when he is watched. - Essentially their own guardian as have to use self control in case watched. - Not a fan of the system, finds it too controlling but explores it as a way of exercising state control over all. 'Power is everywhere because it comes from everywhere.'