Discipline and power: brief considerations on the question of the body in the philosophy of Michel Foucault

Abstract

This article has aims to present some aspects related to the question of the body in the philosophy of Michel Foucault. For this, our investigation will happen in two moments: in the first moment we will analyze the relation of the body with medicine to perceive how the vision of this knowledge about the body has changed since the seventeenth century, we will see that there is a relation between the medical view and the body itself. The second moment will be dedicated to an explanation about the relation between power and body; it will be possible to notice that the subjective practices are determined from cultural devices proper to a cultural reality. In this respect, disciplinary power, which has its base in the panopticon, was preponderant element for the design of the domestication of bodies. Finally, it is not possible to affirm a theory about the body in the French philosopher’s thought, because his investigation brings to light the complexity of the cultural structures that determine the diverse perceptions about this body.