Does anyone know,
a) if Foucault ever debated in a public forum with Jean Baudrillard?
I'm pretty sure if they ever did it was never transcribed.
b) why Foucault chose not to respond to Baudrillard's _Oublier Foucault_
(which reportedly was written for _Critique_, of which Foucault was the
editor)? In Baudrillard's account Foucault was originally going to write
an article that could be published alongside Baudrillard's essay, but in
the end decided not to.
I've been picking through Baudrillard's various writings on the theme of
"seduction", and it would seem the most radical challenge, and at the same
time--in some senses--extension, of Foucault's thinking on truth, the
double and death, among other things. If _Oublier Foucault_ was a simple
polemic it would be understandable that Foucault concluded he had better
things to do. But it's a powerful little essay, and the themes in it--as
later developed in depth (though well prefigured in Baudrillard's earlier
work, which would certainly have been available in Foucault's
lifetime)--are far less accusatory than the title would suggest. One gets
the sense that Baudrillard--though fighting for new ideas--acknowledges the
groundwork done by Foucault which makes his own essay possible, or
thinkable. It seems strange to me that Foucault chose not to respond.
any thoughts much appreciated,
_______________________________________________________
Ian Robert Douglas,
Associate Lecturer & Fulbright Fellow,
Watson Institute of International Studies,
Brown University, Box 1831,
130 Hope Street,
Providence, RI 02912
tel: 401 863-2420
fax: 401 863-2192
"Great is Justice;
Justice is not settled by legislation and laws
it is in the soul .. " - Walt Whitman
a) if Foucault ever debated in a public forum with Jean Baudrillard?
I'm pretty sure if they ever did it was never transcribed.
b) why Foucault chose not to respond to Baudrillard's _Oublier Foucault_
(which reportedly was written for _Critique_, of which Foucault was the
editor)? In Baudrillard's account Foucault was originally going to write
an article that could be published alongside Baudrillard's essay, but in
the end decided not to.
I've been picking through Baudrillard's various writings on the theme of
"seduction", and it would seem the most radical challenge, and at the same
time--in some senses--extension, of Foucault's thinking on truth, the
double and death, among other things. If _Oublier Foucault_ was a simple
polemic it would be understandable that Foucault concluded he had better
things to do. But it's a powerful little essay, and the themes in it--as
later developed in depth (though well prefigured in Baudrillard's earlier
work, which would certainly have been available in Foucault's
lifetime)--are far less accusatory than the title would suggest. One gets
the sense that Baudrillard--though fighting for new ideas--acknowledges the
groundwork done by Foucault which makes his own essay possible, or
thinkable. It seems strange to me that Foucault chose not to respond.
any thoughts much appreciated,
_______________________________________________________
Ian Robert Douglas,
Associate Lecturer & Fulbright Fellow,
Watson Institute of International Studies,
Brown University, Box 1831,
130 Hope Street,
Providence, RI 02912
tel: 401 863-2420
fax: 401 863-2192
"Great is Justice;
Justice is not settled by legislation and laws
it is in the soul .. " - Walt Whitman