MICHEL FOUCAULT: HIS VIEWS ON RELIGION IN THE CONTEXT OF SUBJECT, KNOWLEDGE/POWER

Route Educational and Social Science Journal, vol.10, no.7, pp.184-189, 2023 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)

This study deals with Michel Foucault's perspective on language, knowledge,

power, reason and the institution of "Religion" in the context of his approaches to

language, knowledge, power, reason and all these approaches from a sociological

point of view in a hermenuetic (hermeneutic) way. Foucault's effort to reveal the

organic link between them in the context of the "subject-power" relationship

shows that we need to read him with a unique perspective. Foucault, who has

not made a systematic explanation of religious practices, draws attention to the

fact that the institution of "religion", especially the understanding of Christianity

in the western society he is in, is an important force that shapes history.

Foucault, who has made in-depth studies on sexuality, states that the concepts

related to the Greco-Roman world of sexuality have been negatively altered by

Christianity. Along with these, the concept of "body" appears as the phenomenon

that will interest us the most. It is necessary to express how important the

domination of Foucault's conception of power over the subject and its externalized

expression, the body, is. As a social being, human beings have to express

themselves on the stage of society with their bodies, which leads us to the concept

of "power", which Foucault touches upon extensively. Thus, the concepts of

subject, knowledge/power and power will help us to explain the phenomenon of

internal and external intervention that the body encounters. In summary, as an

attempt to discuss and explain phenomenological approaches ontologically and

epistemologically, the study titled "Michel Foucault: His Views on Religion in the

Context of Subject, Knowledge/Power and Power" aims to provide a conceptual

framework for studies in this field.