[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-509295-105":59,"doc-detail-509295-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","the-subject-and-power-why-study-power-the-question-of-the-subject","The Subject and Power - Why Study Power? The Question of the Subject","","Michel Foucault explains that his work is not built as a general theory or a method, but as an inquiry into how human beings are produced as subjects within culture. He traces three modes of objectification, examines “dividing practices,” and shows how individuals turn themselves into subjects through domains such as sexuality. He argues that to study power relations one must expand power’s definition and pursue critical conceptualization, grounded in historical awareness and careful checking of conceptual needs and types of reality.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-subject-and-power-why-study-power-the-question-of-the-subject/509295/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-subject-and-power-why-study-power-the-question-of-the-subject/509295.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Emma Wilson","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-10-05",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the main goal of Foucault’s work over the previous twenty years?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"To create a history of the different modes by which, in our culture, human beings are made into subjects.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What are Foucault’s three modes of objectification?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"They include inquiry shaped like sciences, the objectivizing of productive labor, and the objectivizing of being alive through natural history or biology.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does Foucault say a theory of power is not an adequate starting point for analysis?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Because a theory assumes a prior objectification and therefore cannot serve as the basis for analytical work, which still requires ongoing conceptualization and critical checking.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},509295,1791406352,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":56,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},3848291630094,"https://eur-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","# The Subject and Power\n\nMichel Foucault  \nWhy Study Power?The Question of the Subject  \nThe ideas which I would like to discuss here represent neither a theorynor a methodology.  \nI would like to say,first of all,what has been the goal of my workduring the last twenty years.It has not been to analyze the phenomenaof power,nor to elaborate the foundations of such an analysis.  \nMy objective,instead,has been to create a history of the differentmodes by which,in our culture,human beings are made subjects.Mywork has dealt with three modes of objectification which transformhuman beings into subjects.  \nThe first is the modes of inquiry which try to give themselves thestatus of sciences;for example,the objectivizing of the speaking subjectin grammaire générale,philology,and linguistics.Or again,in this firstmode,the objectivizing of the productive subject,the subject who labors,in the analysis of wealth and of economics.Or,a third example,theobjectivizing of the sheer fact of being alive in natural history or biology.  \nIn the second part of my work,I have studied the objectivizing ofthe subject in what I shall call \"dividing practices.\"The subject is either  \nThis essay was written by Michel Foucault as an afterword to Michel Foucault:BeyondStructuralism and Hermeneutics by Hubert L.Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow and reprinted byarrangement with the University of Chicago Press.\"Why Study Power?The Question ofthe Subject\"was written in English by Foucault;\"How Is Power Exercised?”was translatedfrom the French by Leslie Sawyer.  \nCritiral Inqury 8(Summer 1982)①1982 by The University of Chicago.0093-1896/82/0804-0006$01.00.Allrights reserved.  \ndivided inside himself or divided from others.This process objectivizeshim.Examples are the mad and the sane,the sick and the healthy,thecriminals and the “good boys.”  \nFinally,I have sought to study—it is my current work—the way ahuman being turns himself into a subject.For example,I have chosenthe domain of sexuality—how men have learned to recognize themselvesas subjects of “sexuality.”  \nThus,it is not power but the subject which is the general theme ofmy research.  \nIt is true that I became quite involved with the question of power.Itsoon appeared to me that,while the human subject is placed in relationsof production and of signification,he is equally placed in power relationswhich are very complex.Now,it seemed to me that economic history andtheory provided a good instrument for relations of production and thatlinguistics and semiotics offered instruments for studying relations ofsignification;but for power relations we had no tools of study.We hadrecourse only to ways of thinking about power based on legal models,that is:What legitimates power?Or,we had recourse to ways of thinkingabout power based on institutional models,that is:What is the state?  \nIt was therefore necessary to expand the dimensions of a definitionof power if one wanted to use this definition in studying the objectivizingof the subject.  \nDo we need a theory of power?Since a theory assumes a priorobjectification,it cannot be asserted as a basis for analytical work.Butthis analytical work cannot proceed without an ongoing conceptualiza-tion.And this conceptualization implies critical thought—a constantchecking.  \nThe first thing to check is what I shall call the “conceptual needs.”Imean that the conceptualization should not be founded on a theory ofthe object—the conceptualized object is not the single criterion of a goodconceptualization.We have to know the historical conditions whichmotivate our conceptualization.We need a historical awareness of ourpresent circumstance.  \nThe second thing to check is the type of reality with which we aredealing.  \nA writer in a well-known French newspaper once expressed hissurprise:“Why is the notion of power raised by so many people today?Is  \nMichel Foucault has been teaching at the College de France since1970.His works include Madness and Civilization(1961),The Birth ofthe Clinic(1966","cbCailBojvUSGmHv","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailBojvUSGmHv","pdf",2032658,"English","# The Subject and Power\n## Why Study Power? The Question of the Subject\n## Modes of Objectification\n## Dividing Practices\n## Power, Theory, and Critical Conceptualization\n## Conceptual Needs and Historical Awareness\n## Types of Reality","[{\"question\":\"What is the main goal of Foucault’s work over the previous twenty years?\",\"answer\":\"To create a history of the different modes by which, in our culture, human beings are made into subjects.\"},{\"question\":\"What are Foucault’s three modes of objectification?\",\"answer\":\"They include inquiry shaped like sciences, the objectivizing of productive labor, and the objectivizing of being alive through natural history or biology.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does Foucault say a theory of power is not an adequate starting point for analysis?\",\"answer\":\"Because a theory assumes a prior objectification and therefore cannot serve as the basis for analytical work, which still requires ongoing conceptualization and critical checking.\"}]","The Subject and Power - Why Study Power? The Question of the Subject | PDF",1791234990,29]