Why did Michel Foucault reject the idea that knowledge is simply a tool used by power?

Michel Foucault rejected the reductionist view that knowledge is merely a tool or handmaiden of power because he believed such an identification failed to capture the complex, mutually reinforcing relationship between the two. Instead of seeing knowledge as a simple instrument of domination, Foucault proposed the concept of power-knowledge (pouvoir-savoir).12

He argued that in any given historical period, structures of social power and governing systems of thought—which he termed epistemes or discursive regimes—legitimate and reinforce one another. Rather than knowledge being a neutral tool used by power, Foucault emphasized that they are always entangled in historically specific circumstances.12

By analyzing these dynamics, Foucault sought to move beyond materialist tendencies that viewed science or knowledge solely as an ideological cloak for domination. He maintained that this entanglement not only results in domination but also in "subjectivation," the process by which individuals are classified and shaped into specific types of subjects. Ultimately, Foucault’s approach aimed to reveal how these systems of thought are constructed and how they define the limits of what can be thought and said within a particular era.21