The purpose of this study is to interpret Michel Foucault's theory of power in relation to the philosophy of Georges Canguilhem and to show that power in Foucault can be interpreted as a model for Canguilhem's life and society. First, I focus on two normativities of Canguilhem. In biological normativity, norms are intrinsic, created by life. In social normativity, on the other hand, they are extrinsic ends that are assumed as a result of the demands and coordination of rationalization in various domains. The discussion of social normativity is based on the replacement of the object-measure relationship, and normalization is positioned as a technology. This theory of technology is interpreted in terms of Canguilhem's original theory, organology. According to Canguilhem, the mechanism of life's organs is produced by life itself and has a purpose intrinsic to life. Even though each organ of life has individual purposes, those purposes are aimed at the maintenance of the living system, i.e., homeostasis. In other words, each organ of life must be considered in relation to the overall purpose. In contrast, the mechanisms of social institutions, which are produced by society, have only extrinsic purposes. They are said to have no overall purpose but only individual purposes. Starting from the above interpretation of Canguilhem, I discuss Foucault's theory of power with a focus on norms and mechanisms. First, I explain that in The History of Sexuality I: The Will to Know, strategy and tactics, the central concepts of power theory, are discussed from the perspective of means-object relations, and that power, like life, is characterized by homeostasis. Next, I examine the “prison failure” discussed in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, namely, that in order to solve the problem of the inability to correct prisoners, power creates a mechanism consisting of police, prisons, and delinquents. This mechanism is intrinsic to power and can be understood in relation to the organs of life as well as interpreted as maintaining a discipline-training society. Hence, the mechanism of power aims to make itself function like an organ of life. Finally, we examine the paradoxical feature of power that the intrinsic purpose of power is extrinsic to the person exercising it, which was not explained in Discipline and Punish, but can be explained in terms of the desire for survival when we look back from the lecture on bio-power at the Collège de France.
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