Foucault, Sex, History and such
This week I will ask a series of questions to prompt discussion. But, since Foucault spoke far more poetically and provacatively than I, I will also offer a few quotations that may prompt a response.
1) What is Foucault's relation to epistemology? In other words, does he work from the position that his words correspond or refer to things? Or, perhaps, does he work from the position that his words do not correspond to things but to facts? Things.....facts....what is the difference? The point is: how do words get their meanings?
2) What role does truth play in Foucault's analysis? Is he discovering truths (timeless or otherwise) about the world?
3) Is Foucault practicing applied metaphysics?
4) What is the relationship between the "material" world and the "ideational" world in Foucault's analysis?
5) What is the "will to knowledge" that Foucault speaks of?
6) What role does contingency and subjugated knowledges play in genealogical analysis?
7) What is the difference between a theory of power and an analytics of power?
8) Power?
Now for some quotable quotes that might prompt you to take the discussion in whatever direction:
In "Genealogy" Foucault wrote: "This is because knowledge is not made for understanding; it is made for cutting."
"Examining the history of reason, he [the genealogist] learns that it was born in an altogether 'reasonable' fashion--from chance; devotion to truth and the precision of scientific methods arose from the passion of scholars, their reciprocal hatred, their fanatical and unending discussions, and their spirit of com-petition--the personal conflicts that slowly forged the weapons of reason."
"Humanity does not gradually progress from combat to combat until it arrives at universal reciprocity, where the rule of law finally replaces warfare; humanity installs each of its violences in a system of rules and thu8s proceeds from domination to domination."
In History Foucault wrote: "In political thought and analysis, we still have not cut off the head of the king."
"Rule of immanence. One must not suppose that there exists a certain sphere of sexuality that would be the legitimate concern of a free and disinterested scientific inquiry were it not the object of mechanisms of prohibition brought to bear by the economic or ideological requirements of power."
"discourse can be both an instrument and an effect of power, but also a hinderance, a stumbling-block, a point of resistance and a starting point for an opposing strategy. Discourse transmits and produces power; it reinforces it, but also undermines and exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it."
1) What is Foucault's relation to epistemology? In other words, does he work from the position that his words correspond or refer to things? Or, perhaps, does he work from the position that his words do not correspond to things but to facts? Things.....facts....what is the difference? The point is: how do words get their meanings?
2) What role does truth play in Foucault's analysis? Is he discovering truths (timeless or otherwise) about the world?
3) Is Foucault practicing applied metaphysics?
4) What is the relationship between the "material" world and the "ideational" world in Foucault's analysis?
5) What is the "will to knowledge" that Foucault speaks of?
6) What role does contingency and subjugated knowledges play in genealogical analysis?
7) What is the difference between a theory of power and an analytics of power?
8) Power?
Now for some quotable quotes that might prompt you to take the discussion in whatever direction:
In "Genealogy" Foucault wrote: "This is because knowledge is not made for understanding; it is made for cutting."
"Examining the history of reason, he [the genealogist] learns that it was born in an altogether 'reasonable' fashion--from chance; devotion to truth and the precision of scientific methods arose from the passion of scholars, their reciprocal hatred, their fanatical and unending discussions, and their spirit of com-petition--the personal conflicts that slowly forged the weapons of reason."
"Humanity does not gradually progress from combat to combat until it arrives at universal reciprocity, where the rule of law finally replaces warfare; humanity installs each of its violences in a system of rules and thu8s proceeds from domination to domination."
In History Foucault wrote: "In political thought and analysis, we still have not cut off the head of the king."
"Rule of immanence. One must not suppose that there exists a certain sphere of sexuality that would be the legitimate concern of a free and disinterested scientific inquiry were it not the object of mechanisms of prohibition brought to bear by the economic or ideological requirements of power."
"discourse can be both an instrument and an effect of power, but also a hinderance, a stumbling-block, a point of resistance and a starting point for an opposing strategy. Discourse transmits and produces power; it reinforces it, but also undermines and exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it."
posted by Anonymous at 11:16 AM
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