You wrote - "Foucault is fundamentally concerned about power as
punishment" - that seems a particularly limited reading of his works,
given that he sees power as enabling, every bit as much as it is
coercive. Of course the penal system is one of his better known
research areas, but check out his History of Sexuality (especially
Care of the Self) for a very different perspective on the relation of
the subject to/of power.
Jen
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Habermas
Author: Vunch@xxxxxxx at SMTPGateway
Date: 23/1/1999 22:37
In a message dated 1/23/99 12:56:41 PM Eastern Standard Time, making@xxxxxxxx
writes:
> From a Foucauldian perspective, however, "the force
> of the better argument" is precisely the force one is concerned about.
Not really, Foucault is fundamentally concerned about power as punishment,
particularly in terms of the penal system. For example, he has difficulty
understanding the distinction between pre-modern and modern that occurred with
Kant's works because the problem of 'atrocious torture' was still endemic.
Even though Kant spoke of a world without war, we still have war today.
Adorno pointed this out to structuralists and positivists, namely, that it was
merely war that has not gone away but the magnitude of WWII was such that we
need to look seriously at the basis for our believing in the modernist
project, given our current awareness of what technology/science can produce!
Vunch
punishment" - that seems a particularly limited reading of his works,
given that he sees power as enabling, every bit as much as it is
coercive. Of course the penal system is one of his better known
research areas, but check out his History of Sexuality (especially
Care of the Self) for a very different perspective on the relation of
the subject to/of power.
Jen
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Habermas
Author: Vunch@xxxxxxx at SMTPGateway
Date: 23/1/1999 22:37
In a message dated 1/23/99 12:56:41 PM Eastern Standard Time, making@xxxxxxxx
writes:
> From a Foucauldian perspective, however, "the force
> of the better argument" is precisely the force one is concerned about.
Not really, Foucault is fundamentally concerned about power as punishment,
particularly in terms of the penal system. For example, he has difficulty
understanding the distinction between pre-modern and modern that occurred with
Kant's works because the problem of 'atrocious torture' was still endemic.
Even though Kant spoke of a world without war, we still have war today.
Adorno pointed this out to structuralists and positivists, namely, that it was
merely war that has not gone away but the magnitude of WWII was such that we
need to look seriously at the basis for our believing in the modernist
project, given our current awareness of what technology/science can produce!
Vunch