Michel Foucault Quotes

No theory ever agrees with all the facts in its domain, yet it is not always the theory that is to blame. Facts are constituted by older ideologies, and a clash between facts and theories may be proof of progress.

There is no knowledge without theory.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

Scientific knowledge is a kind of discourse.

Indeed, this epistemological theory of the relation between theory and experiment differs sharply from the epistemological theory of naive falsificationism.

The clash between Popper and Kuhn is not about a mere technical point in epistemology.

Radical constructivism, thus, is radical because it breaks with convention and develops a theory of knowledge in which knowledge does not reflect an 'objective' ontological reality.

I think of my visual work as an exploration of political epistemology: the politics of how we know what we think we know.

Well, it may be all right in practice, but it will never work in theory

Modern psychology teaches that experience is not merely the best teacher, but the only possible teacher.. There is no war between theory and practice. The most valuable experience demands both, and the theory should supplement the practice and not precede it.

Our theories are the weakest part of what we say. What we're working from is the fact of an experience which we need to make sense of.

Epistemology without contact with science becomes an empty scheme. Science without epistemology is-insofar as it is thinkable at all-primitive and muddled.

It is not enough for theory to describe and analyze, it must itself be an event in the universe it describes.

It is not paradox to say that in our most theoretical moods we may be nearest to our most practical applications.

But while I accept specialization in the practice, I reject it utterly in the theory of science.

Theory is the practice of the impotent.

Whether or not you can observe a thing depends upon the theory you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed.

If you find that you're spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things; it will improve your theories. If you find that you're spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things; it will improve your practice.

Experience arises together with theoretical assumptions not before them, and an experience without theory is just as incomprehensible as is (allegedly) a theory without experience.

Without theory, practice is but routine born of habit. Theory alone can bring forth and develop the spirit of inventions.

Philosophy's position with regard to science, which at one time could be designated with the name "theory of knowledge," has been undermined by the movement of philosophical thought itself. Philosophy was dislodged from this position by philosophy.

Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never can be certain whether he is going. Practice must always be founded on sound theory, and to this Perspective is the guide and the gateway; and without this nothing can be done well in the matter of drawing.

It is the theory which decides what we can observe