Progress of Epistemic Paradigm: Virtue, Power, Government

Abstract

When a reading desired in which some concepts are taken into focus, the entire understanding of the history of thought can be reached; existence, knowledge and virtue are some of these. Our goal is not to read the history of philosophy through these concepts. Our aim is to carry out a debate over epistemic relations of the concepts of virtue, power and government and to take a trail from the thought of West. When it is considered the concepts of 'virtue, power and government', virtue is in the field of ethic, and the others are in the field of philosophy of politics. At the same time, as it is seen in the propositions like 'virtue is knowledge, knowledge is to possess/power, knowledge is power', knowledge is a common concept. The first statement belongs to Socrates; the second one belongs to Francis Bacon and the third one to Michel Foucault. Hence, our discussion will be based on the philosophy of knowledge, value and politics based on the views of these three philosophers.