Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 June 2018
The following article will broach the issue of the relation between Hegel and Foucault based on the binomial knowledge-power. While for Hegel human knowledge comes with the development of consciousness, for Foucault the possibility of knowledge is articulated within a phenomenology of power. While for Hegel Bildung leads spirit to self-consciousness, Foucault initially considers formation to be connected to a forced correction. At first Foucault studies the problem of formation in view of the dynamics of power, as a faculty of repression; later he underlines that the exchange between the sovereign and the advisor positively influences the decisions of the latter, as well as their personal growth. Foucault points out the connection between truth and freedom, and emphasizes the fundamental role of parresia as a force to break the system of power relations.