The paper provides a discussion on the arguments of Marx and Foucault with the aim of exploring on the theme of illusion. It discusses their views and opinions on power, sex, religion and philosophy. It identifies similarities and differences in their approach to the topic of illusion throughout their discussions. It also identifies the current problem in the society which is connected to illusion and suggests a remedy to the problem.
Foucault discusses the whole idea of power stressing much on the positions of those people who hold power in any societal setting and how they relate with their subjects to try and ensure that the power is exercised effectively without abandoning or neglecting a section of the subjects being ruled. He also discusses the issue of sex and connects it to power giving details of how sex and politics interrelate. Foucault, in his discussion, gives a detailed analysis on the relationship between power and objectives that those holding power seek to achieve in the long run. He goes ahead to describe the tactics that those in power and generally politics need to employ in order to realize results in view of both the governors and the governed. In his discussion, he introduces the topic of resistance by asserting that power is normally accompanied by resistance and the degree of resistance is directly proportional to the power exerted on people. His discussion is based on the idea that subjects can employ different tactics to resist any power which they think is not effective. He introduces four basic rules to be observed when trying to internalize how power and sex are interrelated: continual variations, immanence, tactical polyvalence of discourses and double conditioning rules. Marx revolves around the topic of religion and illusions. He gives a discussion on how humanity views religion and talks about how human beings develop deceptive or wrong perceptions i.e. illusions about religion. He sticks to the point that religion has existed over many years in history to save the suffering souls by delivering them from universal suffrage. Marx gives a detailed description which connects humanity and religion by explaining how these two aspects interrelate with each other. He describes how religion exists as one of the components that form the world. Marx also gives an analysis of the consequences that arise as a result of man gaining illusions about his religion in an attempt to understand the reality that circulates around the religion. He gives a justification of his claims that history carries a great responsibility in explaining the truth or rather the reality of the world since man started existing.
The common theme or rather problem that seeks to be addressed by the authors is illusions. According to Foucault, people have a misconception on the topic of power and sex. He asserts that human beings look at these two aspects in a narrow perspective failing to internalize how they interrelate and how they connect to ensure that concerned parties achieve results. According to him, human beings have deceptive beliefs on the form and nature of power and he also argues that different individuals perceive power differently. He clarifies that by stating the word power, he does not refers to forms of administration and institutional settings which enforce law and order to citizens in a state neither does he refer to any form of submission where those being governed must agree to be ruled and follow what the leaders require. He describes the above aspects as the terminal parts which make up power. According to him, power should be viewed from a broad perspective as a topic that entails rationality in formulation and implementation of its aspects. He is of the view that the exercise of real power should be clearly and easily noted among people without compelling them to pay attention to it. Marx, on the other hand, clings to the point that human beings have a false understanding or rather a misconception on the issue of religion. He states that over many years the Germans have struggled to seek a true understanding of their history and how they came to acquire their liberty in the area of religion. They have done a lot of research whose aim is to compare their history and the history of the rest of the world in matters of religion i.e. how and why they adopted their perception about religion and whether their perception is similar to that of other people around the world or not. He argues that people should not only perceive religion basing on public liberty but also on individual liberty because different individuals may develop different understanding of religion and their rights must be obeyed to the fullest.
Foucault uses four principles to explain how human beings can understand sexuality and its relationship with power. According to the principle of eminence, sex manifests itself through varied forms of discourse. Among the modes of discourse that he mentions are interpretations, admissions, self-examinations, interviews and questionings. His opinion is that a critical understanding of these forms of discourse in relation to the topic of sexuality can serve as a clear basis of internalizing how power and sex relate. The principle of continual variations sticks to the point that people cannot be judged to be powerful basing on sex. If so, then only men will be considered to be powerful while women and children will be viewed to be powerless. In reality, there are women who have the same power as men and even many others whose power surpasses that of men. Power relationships should never be viewed as static but they should be seen to be changing depending on many different factors time being one of them.
The idea that is political about Foucault’s piece is that people should learn to understand what power is and go ahead to find a clear relationship between power and sex. When discussed in the field of politics, the idea is that not only men have power to rule people but also women should be trusted and accorded the responsibility to rule people in good faith. This is one way of ensuring that equality prevails in politics and it gives people an assurance that whether someone is a man , woman or of young age, he/she can hold power and administer it in the most appropriate way without causing any tension. The tactical polyvalence of discourses is another principle that seeks to relate power and the aspect of knowledge. Foucault emphasizes that knowledge is a prerequisite to power and that inadequate knowledge is likely to make it hard for a person to exercise power effectively. He argues that discourse must be perceived to be a chain of segments which are discontinuous. The discontinuity of the segments is what finally appears to be the correct conception or perception of what power, knowledge and sex are. Double conditioning is another principle which seeks to give a clear understanding of the relationship between these three areas. The author’s argument is that the fact that the father is the head of the family does not necessarily imply that he can represent the state. He also argues that a family setting is not a true duplicate of the society because a society entails many different aspects which may not be present in the family. He is against making assumptions that a small part can be a representative of a whole.
Marx emphasizes much on the theories that were advanced by Germany early scholars in the areas of religion and philosophy. He argues that people gain illusions about religion because of the many theories that were put forward in the older days which are ever contradicting. The societies of the world have been subdivided into sub-societies which are always against each other and they even go to the extent of confrontation. These societies have been subdivided because people always disagree on who is right about what religion is. People with common beliefs form their group and oppose the views of other groups. In history, the people of Germany have established varied myths which relate to religion and they live by these myths by adhering to what they stipulate. According to him, changing someone's conception about religion is not an easy thing because there is no one common person on earth who is known to have created religion.
The philosophy of Germans is always derived from their history because only history can explain why people behave the way they do. Many people around the world have so much criticized the philosophies held by the people of Germany and they consider the philosophies to be based on mere beliefs which are accompanied by very shallow explanations. The Germans cannot change these philosophies because they consider them to have existed in the days of their forefathers. Marx asserts that people can only realize and adopt a theory if it is in a position to meet their needs. The Germany’s past is based on theories which have undergone reformation over many years. Marx argues that the religious issues which arise as a result of illusions have translated to political misunderstanding not only in Germany but also in many other areas of the world.
One similarity in the authors’ discussions is that they don’t only mention the theme illusion but they deeply discuss the causes of illusion that individuals hold in areas of religion and power. They also relate how illusions in areas of power and religion translate into politics because the field of politics all over the world is known to be accompanied by a lot of misconceptions. There is a difference in their discussions in that Marx only talks about illusions in religion and philosophy but does not provide readers with remedies on how to eliminate the illusions. Foucault, on the other hand, goes further to discuss vital points on how individuals can reason to eliminate illusions in power and sex. For instance, he gives details on the four principles of discourse that are meant to guide readers in eliminating illusions. A current issue that can be addressed by the piece is the issue of discrimination against women and children in our societies. Anyone who reads the piece is in a better position to change his/her perspective about the power of women in our societies. The piece also makes it clear that not necessarily all men have the ability to exercise power over people as many people perceive; some women can show excellent performance compared to men when given an opportunity to exercise power. The piece has all the necessary information to resolve the problem of disregarding women in our societies. As a student, the most important message that I derive from the readings is that there is need to avoid illusions in our societies more so in areas of religion, philosophy, sex and power. Avoidance of illusions can be achieved through a critical analysis of the phenomena which surround us.
Bibliography
Marx, Karl, and Joseph J. O'Malley. Critique of Hegel's ʻPhilosophy of Right.ʼ. Cambridge [England]: University Press, 1972.
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. Volume 1, Volume 1. New York: Vintage, 1990. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk& AN=733101>.
