Matthew, and others
As far as I know Foucault never met Heidegger. I have a feeling he said
somewhere - not about Heidegger, but about another important writer for
him - that the words were enough (probably a remark attributed in one of the
biographies). But he certainly knew people who knew Heidegger. For example,
he was taught by Jean Beaufret briefly (to whom Heidegger wrote the Letter
on Humanism), and met with Ludwig Binswanger when working on the translation
Denoix mentions, and they apparently discussed Heidegger.
Foucault's references to Heidegger are extremely brief, and sometimes
enigmatic. There are lots and lots of implicit relations though. It seems to
me that their relation is found in both obvious, and less than obvious
places. For example, there is a very direct attribution of his late interest
in truth and subjectivity to Heidegger in the L'hermeneutique du sujet
lecture course (p. 182, cf. p. 505.) [I think i've posted the exact
quotations here before, but can do again if there's interest].
As for the phenomenology issue, i guess it depends what is meant by
phenomenology. Foucault is against the phenomenology and existentialism that
had such an impact in France (Sartre, Merleau-Ponty) etc. But Heidegger was
instrumental in the break with that in France through the Letter on Humanism
(see comments by Althusser, Lefebvre and Derrida, amongst others). Heidegger
is far from _simply_ a phenomenologist (whatever that might mean).
There are lots of contrasts of course - I'm not suggesting Foucault is
simply a Heideggerian. But it seems to me that the role of Heidegger is
neglected in looking to his Nietzscheanism (which seems to me to be filtered
very much through Heidegger's monumental book Nietzsche), and that for some
the role of Heidegger is downplayed because of his association with Nazism
(ie the reading of Paul Rabinow). I've written on these issues here and
elsewhere before. I'm currently interested in working out the relation/links
between Foucault and Heidegger's thinking of issues of the politics of
calculation (particularly through the former's work on racism and the
latter's Beitraege) and on the issue of truth and subjectivity (reading the
above mentioned lecture course and Heidegger's work on truth and freedom).
With both the issue is not so much one of influence (though i think there
certainly is an influence), but more of a shared set of concerns that are
played out in related though different ways. I think it's interesting that
even in lecture courses of Heidegger's that were unpublished until after
both thinkers' deaths, there are numerous areas of overlap and common
interest.
Hope that sparks some interest
Best wishes
Stuart
As far as I know Foucault never met Heidegger. I have a feeling he said
somewhere - not about Heidegger, but about another important writer for
him - that the words were enough (probably a remark attributed in one of the
biographies). But he certainly knew people who knew Heidegger. For example,
he was taught by Jean Beaufret briefly (to whom Heidegger wrote the Letter
on Humanism), and met with Ludwig Binswanger when working on the translation
Denoix mentions, and they apparently discussed Heidegger.
Foucault's references to Heidegger are extremely brief, and sometimes
enigmatic. There are lots and lots of implicit relations though. It seems to
me that their relation is found in both obvious, and less than obvious
places. For example, there is a very direct attribution of his late interest
in truth and subjectivity to Heidegger in the L'hermeneutique du sujet
lecture course (p. 182, cf. p. 505.) [I think i've posted the exact
quotations here before, but can do again if there's interest].
As for the phenomenology issue, i guess it depends what is meant by
phenomenology. Foucault is against the phenomenology and existentialism that
had such an impact in France (Sartre, Merleau-Ponty) etc. But Heidegger was
instrumental in the break with that in France through the Letter on Humanism
(see comments by Althusser, Lefebvre and Derrida, amongst others). Heidegger
is far from _simply_ a phenomenologist (whatever that might mean).
There are lots of contrasts of course - I'm not suggesting Foucault is
simply a Heideggerian. But it seems to me that the role of Heidegger is
neglected in looking to his Nietzscheanism (which seems to me to be filtered
very much through Heidegger's monumental book Nietzsche), and that for some
the role of Heidegger is downplayed because of his association with Nazism
(ie the reading of Paul Rabinow). I've written on these issues here and
elsewhere before. I'm currently interested in working out the relation/links
between Foucault and Heidegger's thinking of issues of the politics of
calculation (particularly through the former's work on racism and the
latter's Beitraege) and on the issue of truth and subjectivity (reading the
above mentioned lecture course and Heidegger's work on truth and freedom).
With both the issue is not so much one of influence (though i think there
certainly is an influence), but more of a shared set of concerns that are
played out in related though different ways. I think it's interesting that
even in lecture courses of Heidegger's that were unpublished until after
both thinkers' deaths, there are numerous areas of overlap and common
interest.
Hope that sparks some interest
Best wishes
Stuart