Dominions and domains: Machination, discipline, and power in Heidegger and Foucault

This dissertation offers a comparison between Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault's respective metaphysical and epistemological interpretations of power. Power is a major theme in twentieth century continental philosophy, and this dissertation serves as the first part of a larger series of investigations on the role of power in the continental tradition. Inspired by Nietzsche's formulation of the will to power, both Heidegger and Foucault show how power serves as the condition for the possibility of beings and knowledge. Heidegger's account focuses on machination, a new topic in the Heidegger scholarship with the recent publication of his 1930s private monographs, whereas Foucault focuses on discipline, a topic that is prevalent in the secondary scholarship, but is rarely connected to Heidegger's project in any great detail. After showing how Heidegger and Foucault independently hold similar theories of power, I compare machination and discipline, showing how one can use Heideggerian metaphysics as a background for understanding Foucault's epistemological project.