Re: Clarification (on performativity)



Anonymous wrote:

> In response to confusion about the nature of my question, here goes:
> In _Being and Nothingness_, Sartre argues for an ethic of
> responsibility whereby we view our actions as ultimately constitutive of our
> own ontology. Although Sartre's ethic is derived from the idea of a pregiven
> subject, when I encountered Foucault's notion of treating the self as a work
> of art, it struck me as similar to the ethic Sartre proposes. This led me to
> question the relationship of these philosophers to Nietzsche's work, since
> Nietzsche heavily influenced both Sartre and Foucault.

There are many links between these thinkers. However, there are also many
differences, many revolving around different conceptualization of Freedom.

>
> I think the notion of performativity helps to clarify all this. The
> alternatives suggested by Foucault and Butler are based on a criticism of
> the notion of a pregiven subject. If I remember correctly, McCarthy as
> questioned how Foucault can both deny the existence of and advocate the
> action of a subject. Jessica Kulynych argues that McCarthy misguidedly views
> political participation as being representative, rather than performative.
> Here, we need to draw a distinction between the body and the subject. The
> BODY is pregiven. There is always a living human being that has the
> potentiality to act. It is the subject position from which this living being
> is acting that is unstable.

And the whole importance of the body is key and central to the work of
Nietzsche.

>
> Nietzsche discusses the way the slave morality debases humanity. It
> imposes a "mob"-ized subjectivity. Here, Nietzsche's rejection of this slave
> morality seems in line with a performative understanding of resistance.
> Resisting one's own subjectification brings into being a restive subject.
> Ultimately, the resistance that Butler and Kulynych describe seems to be
> readily translatable into Nietzschean terms.

One might say that all scholarship after N is slave morality and the very idea
of resistance and discipline technologies is nothing but the man of ressentiment
showing his ugly horns.

Matisse


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