Not much to add to some of the recent posts, just that pouvoir can also be a
noun - as it is in Foucault's work. My understanding was that Foucault used
this to try to capture the productive ability side of power rather than just
the repressive (which might be implied from 'puissance', i.e. power as
force). Nietzsche's power - Macht - was generally translated into French as
'puissance'; Foucault translates it as 'pouvoir', again to try to show that
it is broader than just force.
In a note from 1888 Nietzsche suggests that "Knowledge [Erkenntniss] works
as a tool of power [Macht]. Hence it is plain that it increases with every
increase of power". This is found in Kritische Studienausgabe, Bd. 13, S.
302; The Will to Power, #480.
This seems to be key to Foucault's investigations, rather than Bacon (who I
believe did say 'knowledge is power'). Heidegger investigates the notion of
"The will to power as knowledge" in his third lecture course on Nietzsche,
which is in Vol 3 of the English translation of his _Nietzsche_.
Stuart
noun - as it is in Foucault's work. My understanding was that Foucault used
this to try to capture the productive ability side of power rather than just
the repressive (which might be implied from 'puissance', i.e. power as
force). Nietzsche's power - Macht - was generally translated into French as
'puissance'; Foucault translates it as 'pouvoir', again to try to show that
it is broader than just force.
In a note from 1888 Nietzsche suggests that "Knowledge [Erkenntniss] works
as a tool of power [Macht]. Hence it is plain that it increases with every
increase of power". This is found in Kritische Studienausgabe, Bd. 13, S.
302; The Will to Power, #480.
This seems to be key to Foucault's investigations, rather than Bacon (who I
believe did say 'knowledge is power'). Heidegger investigates the notion of
"The will to power as knowledge" in his third lecture course on Nietzsche,
which is in Vol 3 of the English translation of his _Nietzsche_.
Stuart