I haven't read Alcof's essay but I'd agree with Mile's post that
Foucault is concerned with the practices of truth. That he is concerned
with a "history of truth" means precisely that he's not advancing a
"general theory", but a genealogical investigation into the conditions of
possibility for "truth" in a historical constellation (Foucault maintains
the archealogical project throughout his work - the constitution of
discursive objects, the possibilities fo their connections and
organisations <see Spivak's "Outside in the Teachin Machine">). He then
asks "What is the cost of telling the truth?". However, in his later work
he doesn't always mark "truth" as oppressive but as a positive value in
the living of a beautiful life - as with Neitszche discipline is part of
an aesthetics of living.
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Foucault is concerned with the practices of truth. That he is concerned
with a "history of truth" means precisely that he's not advancing a
"general theory", but a genealogical investigation into the conditions of
possibility for "truth" in a historical constellation (Foucault maintains
the archealogical project throughout his work - the constitution of
discursive objects, the possibilities fo their connections and
organisations <see Spivak's "Outside in the Teachin Machine">). He then
asks "What is the cost of telling the truth?". However, in his later work
he doesn't always mark "truth" as oppressive but as a positive value in
the living of a beautiful life - as with Neitszche discipline is part of
an aesthetics of living.
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