October 15: Challenging Power/Knowledge
On 15 October 1926, Michel Foucault was born in Poitiers, France. He was a social theorist as well as a philosopher. Some of his famous works are The Birth of the Clinic and The Order of Things.
One of Foucault’s most well known philosophies was on power and knowledge and how they connect. The idea behind power/knowledge is basically that those who have the power control the knowledge. Since the ones in power have the control and trust of the people, they can put into the world whatever knowledge they allow the people to have and gain. In this philosophy, there also exists the possibility of ruptures. A rupture is an idea or thought not in the cycle of knowledge granted to the people that breaks through the old knowledge.
In 399 BCE, there was a Greek philosopher who challenged the power/knowledge of his day and was therefore sentenced to death. Socrates was approximately 71 years old when he was sentenced to death by hemlock because the people in power claimed he was corrupting the youth and did not believe in the gods of the state. In actuality, what Socrates did was question people and always asked “Why?” without simply accepting things at the word of others. He also encouraged his students try to reach the “why” and think for themselves. The people in power at the time did not see the educational value but instead chose to see it as blasphemy.
Conium maculatum–the poison hemlock Socrates took–if used in small doses, can be a very valuable medicine. In fact, it was used in Anglo-Saxon medicine as a sedative and antispasmodic and has even been recommended as an antidote for certain poisonings. Greek and Arabian physicians used hemlock as a cure for “indolent tumors, swellings, and pains of the joints.” It has also been used as an inhalant for bronchitis and a variety of other medical uses.
Socrates was given the juice of hemlock as his poison which worked away at his nerves until he could neither walk nor feel his legs. It eventually shut down his respiratory function until he died. Unfortunately, Socrates did not create his rupture until much later in time through the writing of his students.
–Hina Gandher
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I am a student at Schoolcraft College. My interests include music, singing, reading, photography, cooking, traveling, writing, drawing, creating, and believing that anything is possible. A possible career choice I am interested in is going to teach in Japan. If I could go back in time to any period, I would most likely choose the Renaissance so I could explore all the wonders as they were being created.
The image is one of Gandher’s photographs.
On 15 October 1764 Edward Gibbon observes several friars singing in the destroyed Roman Temple of Jupiter, which was the most important Temple in Rome during its lifespan. Watching the singing inspired Gibbon to write his most notable and influential work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This history book accurately follows the lifespan of the Roman Empire, its widespread magnitude and influence on citizens of the past, and why he believes the Roman Empire collapsed in the first place. Theorists exist during all time periods and Gibbon, just like Foucault, merely wished for his opinions and knowledge to be heard.