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Full Idea
The problem is not to dissolve power relations in a utopia of transparent communications, but to acquire the rules of law, the management techniques, the morality, the practice of the self, that allows games of power with minimum domination.
Gist of Idea
The aim is not to eliminate power relations, but to reduce domination
Source
Michel Foucault (Ethics of the Concern for Self as Freedom [1984], p.298)
Book Ref
Foucault,Michel: 'Essential Works 1954-1984 I: Ethics', ed/tr. Rabinow,Paul [Penguin 1994], p.298
A Reaction
If you are a democrat it is hard to disagree with this, though I am still unclear why being dominated should rank as a total disaster. A healthy personal relationship might involve domination. 'Management techniques' is interesting.
| 7418 | The idea of liberation suggests there is a human nature which has been repressed [Foucault] |
| 7419 | Ethics is the conscious practice of freedom [Foucault] |
| 7420 | When logos controls our desires, we have actually become the logos [Foucault] |
| 7422 | A subject is a form which can change, in (say) political or sexual situations [Foucault] |
| 7423 | Philosophy and politics are fundamentally linked [Foucault] |
| 7424 | Saying games of truth were merely power relations would be a horrible exaggeration [Foucault] |
| 7425 | The aim is not to eliminate power relations, but to reduce domination [Foucault] |
| 7426 | Critical philosophy is what questions domination at every level [Foucault] |