ABSTRACT
Grounded on some theoretical notions bequeathed by Michel Foucault, this article is devoted to describing and analyzing the emergence of a new socio-educational order in Portugal after the earthquake of 1775, responsible for the reconfiguration of the nexus power-knowledge-truth that had guided the modes of existence until then. The discussions mobilize a set of documents from that period, through which it is possible to witness the constitution of a new art of governing supported by educative strategies of the living. Thus, the idea of population arises as a central element of a type of governing carried out by the dissemination of a scientific-based rationality with educational purposes.
Keywords:
earthquake of 1775; population; governing; education