Power, Knowledge and the Birth of Sense a Foundation for the Explanation of HowState Appears

In the present research, we tried to study the first axis of Michel Foucault’s thought that is knowledge on the basis of the two areas of discursive and non-discursive practices as the components of knowledge, their relation, the manner of their articulation and at last the birth of sense. This research tries to show that how the articulation of the two essentially heterogeneous areas forms knowledge and makes it paradoxical and creates a gap that cannot be filled. On this basis, sense as the way of appearing of bodies is the result of this articulation. This articulation does not require any commonality or conformity between the two areas but what Foucault calls “strategic coincidence”. Therefore knowledge is formed and sense is born only in the case that the two areas realize a particular power relation or a power relation is realized in them. But in this regards we shouldn’t ignore the role of state. State as the final form of power relations as what Foucault calls stratification has huge influences on the forming of knowledge and the birth of sense. From the angle of Iran’s society Foucault’s methodology can help us Iranians as those who are still involved with the problem of tradition and modernity analyze our situation and show that on the basis of which logic some parts of tradition’s discursivities are still kept and articulated of the bodies and some other parts are ignored, paid no attention or denied.