Kajian Metafisika “Relasi Kuasa” Dalam Pemikiran Michel Foucault

Abstract

Foucault was the first philosopher after World War II who spoke of Nietzscheas a serious political philosopher. For him all kinds of truth claims are interpretations ofa world, which do not really exist as something ahistorical. Three important factors thatinfluence Foucault’s young thinking are, First, the history and philosophy of the Frenchschool of knowledge which was then influenced by the thoughts of Georges Canguilhemwho had many thoughts about the history and philosophy of biology. Second, the linguisticstells Ferdinand de Saussure and structuralist psychology developed by Jacques Lacan,and Georges Dumezil’s (a proto-structuralist in the comparison of religion) had a majorinfluence on Foucault. Third, namely Foucault was infatuated with French avant-gardeliterature, especially the works of Georges Bataille and Maurice Blanchot. In general,the definition of power according to Foucault is divided into two types, namely negativedefinition and positive definition. In the negative definition it is stated that power isnot through violence or the results of an agreement. In the positive definition of powerthat power is the whole structure of actions that suppress and encourage other actionsthrough persuasion, stimulation, seduction, coercion and prohibition. For Foucault poweris productive and cannot be separated from knowledge. Knowledge gives birth to power,power gives birth to knowledge. Knowledge is institutionalized and becomes the authority of power that determines this to be true and that which is wrong. The peculiarity ofthe concept of power from Foucault is that power is carried out more than possessed, notinherent in actors or interests, but united in various forms of practice. Foucault’s thoughtopened up the possibility to dismantle all domination and power relations, such as powerin knowledge between discourse creators, bureaucrats, academics, and “uncivilized”common people who had to be disciplined, regulated and “nurtured”. From the study offoucault’s works, it seems that the metaphysical truth of power relations lies in its historicalstatement, which is actually nothing but to perpetuate the power itself.