Philosophy and Social Criticism 29 (3):259-280 (2003)
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This paper problematizes the claim that Michel Foucault's work is normatively lacking and therefore possesses only limited political relevance. While Foucault does not articulate a traditional normative framework for political activity, I argue that his work nonetheless reflects certain normative commitments to, for example, practicing freedom and improving the state of the world. I elucidate these commitments by sketching out Foucault's notion of critique as a mode of existence characterized by practices of the self, arguing that such practices possess political significance within the context of what Foucault refers to as a way of life, and analyzing points of intersection and departure between Kant's and Foucault's respective responses to the question `What is Enlightenment?' in order to clarify the connection Foucault makes between self-practices and freedom. Through this analysis I also show that Foucault reconceptualizes normative concepts such as obligation, freedom, autonomy and publicity in non-normalizing, politically compelling ways, and argue that his work opens onto a similar reconceptualization of the notion of political unity. I conclude with a preliminary investigation into the political efficacy of Foucault's ethos by discussing its relevance specifically for feminist politics.
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DOI | 10.1177/0191453703029003001 |
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References found in this work BETA
Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault.Michel Foucault, Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman & Patrick H. Hutton (eds.) - 1988 - University of Massachusetts Press.
Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America.Richard Rorty - 1998 - Harvard University Press.
Foucault and Feminism: Power, Gender, and the Self.Lois McNay - 1992 - Northeastern University Press.
View all 14 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
What is Critique? Critical Turns in the Age of Criticism.Sverre Raffnsøe - 2017 - Outlines. Critical Practice Studies 18 (1):28-60.
Michel Foucault’s Techniques of the Self and the Christian Politics of Obedience.Alexandre Macmillan - 2011 - Theory, Culture and Society 28 (4):3-25.
Critique as a Technique of Self: A Butlerian Analysis of Judith Butler's Prefaces.Tom Boland - 2007 - History of the Human Sciences 20 (3):105-122.
Reparative Critique, Care, and the Normativity of Foucauldian Genealogy.Bonnie Sheehey - 2020 - Angelaki 25 (5):67-82.
View all 7 citations / Add more citations
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2009-01-28
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