Document Type : Research Paper

Author

• Gholamhossein Moghaddam Heidari

Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science department, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies

Abstract

Observation, as an action, is one of the most important and controversial topics of philosophy of science. Analytic philosophers of science have examined this subject from a variety of perspectives. They have shown that what is observed is influenced by the observer’s goals and his/her past experiences, thus observation is influenced by epistemological, semantic, psychological or sociological factors. However observation is not only of interest to analytic philosophers, but it also has been addressed by continental philosophers. One of these philosophers is Michel Foucault, who in his book the birth of the clinic, describes how human body turns into the object of observation in medicine. He points out that in addition to the factors influencing observation as expressed by analytic philosophers, it should be noted that observation basically is a political act. We use Foucault's views in this regard. Although Foucault referred to this issue in his various works, it can be said that observation is the central theme of the birth of the clinic. The purpose of this article is to reveal this political aspect of observation. We discuss what is exactly mean for observation to be a political act, and why the philosophers of science should consider the political aspect of observations in their studies

Keywords

• observation
• biopolitics
• Power
• Clinic
• History
• Michel Foucault
• the birth of the clinic