--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Let us ask... how things work at the…" description: "\"Let us ask... how things work at the level of on-going subjugation, at the level of those continuous and uninterrupted processes which subject our bodi..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0e3/michel-foucault-1134_asks_let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level_22978.jpg" --- # Let us ask... how things work at the level of on-going… ![“Let us ask... how things work at the level of on-going subjugation, at the level of those continuous and uninterrupted processes which subject our bodies, govern our gestures, dictate our behaviors, etc... we should try to discover how it is that subjects are gradually, progressively, really and…” quote by Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0e3/michel-foucault-1134_asks_let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level_22978.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0e3/michel-foucault-1134_asks_let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level_22978.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0e3/michel-foucault-1134_asks_let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level_22978.jpg) > “Let us ask... how things work at the level of on-going subjugation, at the level of those continuous and uninterrupted processes which subject our bodies, govern our gestures, dictate our behaviors, etc... we should try to discover how it is that subjects are gradually, progressively, really and materially constituted through a multiplicity of organisms, forces, energies, materials, desires, thoughts, etc. We should try to grasp subjection in its material instance as a constitution of subjects.” [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote examines how power shapes individuals through ongoing, material processes, producing subjectivity via intersecting forces, desires, and bodily regulations. **In simple terms:** Power constructs identity through material practices. Key Takeaway Subjectivity emerges from continuous power relations. Themes Power Subjectivity Materialism Biopolitics Discipline Agency Mood Analytical Critical Reflective Type Philosophical Theoretical Critical When to use this quote - Analyzing institutional control - Studying bodily regulation - Exploring identity formation - Examining social norms Key Concepts Power structures Body politics Social conditioning Desire Practical Applications - Critical theory research - Policy analysis of surveillance Questions to Reflect On - How do everyday practices reinforce power? - Can individuals resist material subjectification? A Different Perspective null ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Asks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/asks/) [Behavior](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/behavior/) [Body](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/body/) [Constitution](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/constitution/) [Desire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/desire/) [Energy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/energy/) [Etc](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/etc/) [Force](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/force/) [Gestures](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gestures/) [Habits](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/habits/) [Instance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/instance/) [Levels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/levels/) [Materials](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/materials/) [Multiplicity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/multiplicity/) [Organisms](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/organisms/) [Philosophy of Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/philosophy-of-mind/) [Power](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/power/) [Process](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/process/) [Processes Subject](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/processes-subject-403027/) [Should](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/should/) [Subject Bodies](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subject-bodies-403025/) [Subjection](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subjection/) [Subjection Material](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subjection-material-403026/) [Subjects](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subjects/) [Subjects Gradually](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subjects-gradually-403024/) [Subjugation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subjugation/) [Trying](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/trying/) ## Related quotes > [When ordinary people wake up, elites begin to tremble in their boots.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cornel-west/when-ordinary-people-wake-up-elites-begin-to-tremble-in-their-boots/) [Cornel West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cornel-west/) > [A woman with cut hair is a filthy spectacle, and much like a monsterit being natural and comely to women to nourish their hair,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-prynne/a-woman-with-cut-hair-is-a-filthy-spectacle-and-much-like-a-monsterit/) [William Prynne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-prynne/) > [Thus the woman, who had perversely exceeded her proper bounds, is forced back to her own position. 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My natural rights, my civil rights, my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-b-anthony/in-your-ordered-verdict-of-guilty-you-have-trampled-under-foot-every/) [Susan B. Anthony](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-b-anthony/) > [Whichever way I turn, whatever phase of social life presents itself, the same conviction comes: Independent bread alone can redeem woman from her curse…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-b-anthony/whichever-way-i-turn-whatever-phase-of-social-life-presents-itself/) [Susan B. Anthony](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-b-anthony/) > [No nation keeps another in subjection without herself turning into a subject nation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/no-nation-keeps-another-in-subjection-without-herself-turning-into-a/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Civilization involves subjection of force to reason, and the agency of this subjection is law.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roscoe-pound/civilization-involves-subjection-of-force-to-reason-and-the-agency-of/) [Roscoe Pound](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roscoe-pound/) > [The woman born to physical subjection and degradation can never seek or use knowledge as her birthright. Never till she holds her sex in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mary-c-ames/the-woman-born-to-physical-subjection-and-degradation-can-never-seek/) [Mary C. 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To live…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rajneesh/there-is-no-heaven-and-there-is-no-hell-they-are-not-geographical/) [Rajneesh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rajneesh/) > [Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom… The subjection of individuals will increase…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexis-de-tocqueville/americans-are-so-enamored-of-equality-that-they-would-rather-be-equal/) [Alexis de Tocqueville](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexis-de-tocqueville/) > [Accepting the view that man was prior in the creation, some Scriptural writers say that as the woman was of the man, therefore, her…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-cady-stanton/accepting-the-view-that-man-was-prior-in-the-creation-some-scriptural/) [Elizabeth Cady Stanton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-cady-stanton/) > [Too many have no idea of the subjection of their temper to the influence of religion, and yet what is changed, if the temper…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-angell-james/too-many-have-no-idea-of-the-subjection-of-their-temper-to-the/) [John Angell James](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-angell-james/) ## More by Michel Foucault > [One should try to locate power at the extreme of its exercise, where it is always less legal in character.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/one-should-try-to-locate-power-at-the-extreme-of-its-exercise-where/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [The book is not simply the object that one holds in one's hands, and it cannot remain within the little parallelpiped that contains it:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/the-book-is-not-simply-the-object-that-one-holds-in-one-s-hands-and/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [“But a punishment like forced labour or even imprisonment – mere loss of liberty – has never functioned without a certain additional element of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/but-a-punishment-like-forced-labour-or-even-imprisonment-mere-loss-of/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [Death left its old tragic heaven and became the lyrical core of man: his invisible truth, his visible secret.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/death-left-its-old-tragic-heaven-and-became-the-lyrical-core-of-man/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [I'm no prophet. 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We know 'as a result of more than three thousand years of experience that Myrrh and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/the-preferred-medications-were-those-that-forestalled-corruption-we/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [“The man described for us, whom we are invited to free, is already in himself the effect of a subjection much more profound than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/the-man-described-for-us-whom-we-are-invited-to-free-is-already-in/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [“Confined on the ship, from which there is no escape, the madman is delivered to the river with its thousand arms, the sea with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/confined-on-the-ship-from-which-there-is-no-escape-the-madman-is/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [Believe what is productive is not sedentary but nomadic.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/believe-what-is-productive-is-not-sedentary-but-nomadic/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [Are the prisons overpopulated, or is the population over-imprisoned ?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/are-the-prisons-overpopulated-or-is-the-population-over-imprisoned/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [An American professor complained that a crypto-Marxist like me was invited in the USA, and I was denounced by the press in Eastern European…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/an-american-professor-complained-that-a-crypto-marxist-like-me-was/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [Withdraw allegiance from the old categories of the Negative (law, limit, castration, lack, lacuna), which the Western thought has so long held sacred as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/withdraw-allegiance-from-the-old-categories-of-the-negative-law-limit/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [This non-proletarianised plebs has been racialist when it has been colonialist; it has been nationalist - chauvinist - when it has been armed; and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/this-non-proletarianised-plebs-has-been-racialist-when-it-has-been/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) [Explore all 272 Michel Foucault quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) ## More Asks quotes > [If you ask an introvert a question, wait until she thinks about it. Introverts think before speaking, not through speaking. If you want to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laurie-helgoe/if-you-ask-an-introvert-a-question-wait-until-she-thinks-about-it/) [Laurie Helgoe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laurie-helgoe/) > [I don't wear a watch because I want my arms to weigh the same. So if somebody asks me what time it is, I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mitch-hedberg/i-don-t-wear-a-watch-because-i-want-my-arms-to-weigh-the-same-so-if/) [Mitch Hedberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mitch-hedberg/) > [I am a practicing Catholic, but my lineage is Jewish, so if someone asks me if I'm Jewish, I say yes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neve-campbell/i-am-a-practicing-catholic-but-my-lineage-is-jewish-so-if-someone/) [Neve Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neve-campbell/) > [Freedom in every sense but primarily political sense, a rise in repression that stems from a repression of sexuality. 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That's th' appliance only Which your disease requires.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/ask-god-for-temp-rance-that-s-th-appliance-only-which-your-disease/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [I don't know how to say it exactly. Only...I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?' he asks. I shake my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/suzanne-collins/i-don-t-know-how-to-say-it-exactly-only-i-want-to-die-as-myself-does/) [Suzanne Collins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/suzanne-collins/) > [Physicist Isador Isaac Rabi, who won a Nobel Prize for inventing a technique that permitted scientists to probe the structure of atoms and molecules…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-saul-wurman/physicist-isador-isaac-rabi-who-won-a-nobel-prize-for-inventing-a/) [Richard Saul Wurman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-saul-wurman/) [Browse all 7,138 Asks quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/asks/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Let us ask... how things work at the level of on-going subjugation, at the level of those continuous and uninterrupted processes which subject our bodies, govern our gestures, dictate our behaviors, etc... we should try to discover how it is that subjects are gradually, progressively, really and materially constituted through a multiplicity of organisms, forces, energies, materials, desires, thoughts, etc. We should try to grasp subjection in its material instance as a constitution of subjects.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Michel Foucault" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level-of-on-going-subjugation-at/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Asks" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level-of-on-going-subjugation-at/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0e3/michel-foucault-1134_asks_let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level_22978.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0e3/michel-foucault-1134_asks_let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level_22978.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0e3/michel-foucault-1134_asks_let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level_22978.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Let us ask... how things work at the level of on-going subjugation, at the level of those continuous and…” — Michel Foucault", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Michel Foucault", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Let us ask... how things work...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level-of-on-going-subjugation-at/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/let-us-ask-how-things-work-at-the-level-of-on-going-subjugation-at/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```