on 1/28/01 7:11 PM, Bryan C at kirk728@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Then the answer is that "free will" (in the Kantian sense of "autonomy")
> doesn't exist and is constructed by power relations. How can I
> reconcile this with the ethical stance of constructing one's self as a
> work of art? If, no matter in what type of agency, my free will is
> constrained as to have some things concealed from me and others revealed,
> how can I construct myself into a perfect work of art? In other words,
> in a deterministic reality, how do I have the choice to form myself?
> Any descision I make rises directly out of the constraints of power
> relations. I am not constructing myself, I am being constructed.
I don't think that there is such a thing as a "true" work of art. I'm not
sure that Foucault uses _that_ term (though he does use the work of art
point).
I think this is one of the dilemmas in understanding/using Foucault's
ethics. It seems to me that the way of understanding it is also in an
understandingn of agency as emergence.
What I mean by this is an understanding that allows actions to construct the
agency that allows the actions - ie, the agency is constrained to begin
with, but notions of self-creation are ways of _re-forming_ the same
relations of power that form the subject in the first place, thus reforming
the subject and the certain type of agency.
In other words, I think your point, that you are not constructing yourself,
but being constructed, is exactly _the_ point. You are constructing yourself
the constructing (and thoroughly constructed) subject.
---
Asher Haig ahaig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dartmouth 2004
> Then the answer is that "free will" (in the Kantian sense of "autonomy")
> doesn't exist and is constructed by power relations. How can I
> reconcile this with the ethical stance of constructing one's self as a
> work of art? If, no matter in what type of agency, my free will is
> constrained as to have some things concealed from me and others revealed,
> how can I construct myself into a perfect work of art? In other words,
> in a deterministic reality, how do I have the choice to form myself?
> Any descision I make rises directly out of the constraints of power
> relations. I am not constructing myself, I am being constructed.
I don't think that there is such a thing as a "true" work of art. I'm not
sure that Foucault uses _that_ term (though he does use the work of art
point).
I think this is one of the dilemmas in understanding/using Foucault's
ethics. It seems to me that the way of understanding it is also in an
understandingn of agency as emergence.
What I mean by this is an understanding that allows actions to construct the
agency that allows the actions - ie, the agency is constrained to begin
with, but notions of self-creation are ways of _re-forming_ the same
relations of power that form the subject in the first place, thus reforming
the subject and the certain type of agency.
In other words, I think your point, that you are not constructing yourself,
but being constructed, is exactly _the_ point. You are constructing yourself
the constructing (and thoroughly constructed) subject.
---
Asher Haig ahaig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dartmouth 2004