"In a sense, I am a moralist, insofar as I believe that one of the tasks, one of the meanings of human existence - the source of human freedom - is never to accept anything as definitive, untouchable, obvious, or immobile. No aspect of reality should be allowed to become a definitive and inhuman law for us. We have to rise up against all forms of power - but not just power in the narrow sense of the word, referring to the power of a government or of one social group over another: these are only a few particular instances of power. Power is anything that tends to render immobile and untouchable those things that are offered to us as real, as true, as good"- Foucault (Bess, 1988).
Michel Foucault is considered to be a controversial figure in the field of philosophy. He was famous for his variety of interests, which included science, history, archeology, sexuality, and geneology and was not afraid to change his stance to form opposing views. Michel Foucault's works are influential sources of ideas in humanities and social sciences but are sometimes considered hard to grasp because Foucault questioned historical events that were taken at face value and found them to be lacking.
Philosophy of Nursing Science
Susan England, MSN, RN
February 26, 2010
