Martin,
This won't be much help, but I can tell you that in his College de
France lecture of 30 january 1980, during a discussion of his method
(and in particular the relationship between power & knowledge) in which
he compares his analysis to "anarchism", Foucault makes a parenthetical
aside in which he recommends that the auditors read Feyerabend's
_Against Method_ as an interesting text on the relationship between
anarchy and knowledge. (The French translation of the book [Contre le
method. Esquisse pour une theorie anarchique de la connaissance (Seuil,
1979)] had just appeared several months earlier in 1979.) =20
It's virtually nothing =8B=8B no trenchant analysis of Feyerabend's project
with respect to his own =8B=8B but we can conclude that Foucault was at
least somewhat familiar with Feyerabend's work, and sympathetic enough
to Feyerabend's project as he understood it, to recommend it in his
course. These kinds of recommendations are quite rare in Foucault's
courses =8B=8B Paul Veyne & Georges Dumezil, for example, are two of the
very few who receive high praise =8B=8B so a mention indicates some respect
for the work.
You might want to look in the Books sections of Le Monde and Liberation
for 1979 to see what their reviewers said (if anything) about the book,
to see if Foucault was just following their analysis.
That's the only mention Foucault makes of him in the '78 - '84 courses.
For what it's worth,
Sincerely,
Richard
Richard A. Lynch
Dept. of Philosophy
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 USA
(617) 552-3851 (office)
(617) 552-3874 (fax)
lynchrb@xxxxxx
On Sun, 22 Aug 1999 08:40:18 -0400 Stuart Elden wrote:
>Martin
>
>Had a look at the index of Dits et ecrits and no reference to
>Feyerabend. I can't recall any references in the books, so looks
unlikely that
>Foucault ever said anything in print about him. Maybe something in one
of the
>College de France courses (not in those so far published)?
>
>Sorry to not be of any more help, but I know little about Feyerabend.
>Sounds interesting though.
>
>Best Wishes
>
>Stuart
This won't be much help, but I can tell you that in his College de
France lecture of 30 january 1980, during a discussion of his method
(and in particular the relationship between power & knowledge) in which
he compares his analysis to "anarchism", Foucault makes a parenthetical
aside in which he recommends that the auditors read Feyerabend's
_Against Method_ as an interesting text on the relationship between
anarchy and knowledge. (The French translation of the book [Contre le
method. Esquisse pour une theorie anarchique de la connaissance (Seuil,
1979)] had just appeared several months earlier in 1979.) =20
It's virtually nothing =8B=8B no trenchant analysis of Feyerabend's project
with respect to his own =8B=8B but we can conclude that Foucault was at
least somewhat familiar with Feyerabend's work, and sympathetic enough
to Feyerabend's project as he understood it, to recommend it in his
course. These kinds of recommendations are quite rare in Foucault's
courses =8B=8B Paul Veyne & Georges Dumezil, for example, are two of the
very few who receive high praise =8B=8B so a mention indicates some respect
for the work.
You might want to look in the Books sections of Le Monde and Liberation
for 1979 to see what their reviewers said (if anything) about the book,
to see if Foucault was just following their analysis.
That's the only mention Foucault makes of him in the '78 - '84 courses.
For what it's worth,
Sincerely,
Richard
Richard A. Lynch
Dept. of Philosophy
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 USA
(617) 552-3851 (office)
(617) 552-3874 (fax)
lynchrb@xxxxxx
On Sun, 22 Aug 1999 08:40:18 -0400 Stuart Elden wrote:
>Martin
>
>Had a look at the index of Dits et ecrits and no reference to
>Feyerabend. I can't recall any references in the books, so looks
unlikely that
>Foucault ever said anything in print about him. Maybe something in one
of the
>College de France courses (not in those so far published)?
>
>Sorry to not be of any more help, but I know little about Feyerabend.
>Sounds interesting though.
>
>Best Wishes
>
>Stuart