The relationship between law, truth and right. Foucault's ideas - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... While lobbying against this culture, women termed the practice as infringing on human rights and were torturous to women (Rogers 2007, p. 15-30). Furthermore, it was seen as perpetrating the patriarchal dominance of men. In his ideology about truth and right, Foucault comes up with a triangle that relates power, truth and right to each other. He questions the significance power has in ensuring that the right thing is done. According to Foucault, power has to be cultivated and must emanate from the truth. Without the truth, power can not function as truth is its basis. Furthermore, Foucault deduces that people must pursue truth as they do wealth, since wealth can not be produced without power. Power dictates how people go about their businesses, how they live, what they do and where their real destiny is. People do what is right and it is determined by what power they wield inside them. Foucault and his followers defined rights as being the product of where it hailed from and the perception of the people in that particular area. Many societies believe that what is right to them is the general definition of the word in the universe as a whole. For instance, when it came to enforcing as law the criminality of female genital mutilation, legislators were faced with the task of doing the right thing without offending most of the parties involved. The power wielded by most politicians is what brought the legislation to most western world parliaments for debate, and it is the same power, belied by the sense of doing right, that made them do away with what was referred to as a great source of darkness to many women (Multicultural Victoria 2004). It was not a secret that Foucault detested the Marxism and socialist running of affairs of his country during his time. He was known to openly oppose and criticize norms that were thrust to societies without realistic justifications. In a way, he was seen as being conservative in his thinking, preferring to apply logic and tradition to what he believed in; the truth was a fundamental basis of what Foucault set his beliefs on. Foucault and his followers believed that the truth was realized after periods of war and conflict, and the calm that followed thereafter. This was because Foucault analyzed the concept of truth from historical events, customs and continuity of societies, as opposed to what he referred to as philosophico-juridical discourse, which defined truth from its origin, rationality and through laws set up by society (Foucault 1980, 25-55). While most of society viewed power as being contained to certain areas and oppressive, Foucault viewed power as being able to produce some good, but unachievable in its ideals. The truth of what female genital mutilation and its effect on women were witnessed first hand by many of its opponents; that it violated basic human rights, and more so of female members of the society and this propelled its abolition in most countries (Victoria act 2004). Law cannot exist without the truth or the right thing being done. These are the bases of any forms of legislations in any country that values its citizens. The law is drawn and implemented by people who wield power in the society. These are mostly legislators, voted into their positions of power by citizens who believed that the law makers will be truthful and make the right decisions on their behalves. Most laws are formed, and according to Foucault, they have a historical experience as their origin (Foucault 1977, p. 50-60). This means that an event or a series of happenings had to have occurred in order for laws to be put in place. In the cases of female genital ...Download file to see next pagesRead More