Mark, and others
Sometime back there was an attempt at a discussion of this text on and
beyond this list, but it fell apart after about 6 of the lectures.
I did write a review of the book, which appeared in The Heythrop Journal,
Vol 44 No 1, January 2003, pp. 88-91.It's pasted below. I think you will
find new material on subjectivity, but it's pretty deeply buried in the
book, along with a lot of familiar material. I found it by far the least
interesting of the four lecture courses currently out, but that is not an
opinion that would be shared by everyone here.
Hope it's of interest
Stuart
L'Hermineutique du sujet: Cours au Collhge de France (1981-1982). By Michel
Foucault, edited by Fridiric Gros. Pp. xi, 546, Paris, Gallimard/Seuil,
2001, EUR24.39.
By the early 1980s, the long detour the research for Foucault's History of
Sexuality had taken through notions of confession, pastoral power, and
governmentality had, it seemed, at long last yielded a volume on
Christianity. Rather than the original title La Chair et le corps [The Flesh
and the Body] this was now named Les Aveux de la chair [Confessions of the
Flesh]. However, the introduction to this volume rested, Foucault suggested,
upon a number of 'clichis' about pagan ethics, which were misleading, based
as they were on generalisations in the secondary literature. Turning back
again, he wanted to sort out his view of the earlier period before he
published this book on Christianity, and so began an investigation into
Greek and Roman practices of the self.
In 1983, in discussions with Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, Foucault
outlined the way in which he expected his revised History of Sexuality would
run. Rather than the thematic plan he had introduced in the first volume in
1976, he was now working much more historically. There would be two further
volumes - L'Usage des plaisirs [The use of pleasures] and Les Aveux de la
chair. In addition there would be a volume separate from the 'sex series',
entitled Le Souci de soi [The care of the self]. This last volume would be
composed of different papers about the self, including a commentary on
Plato's Alcibiades and a discussion of the role of reading and writing in
constituting the self. However, between this interview and the publication
of the next two volumes, Foucault changed his mind yet again (the French
translation of the interview was revised accordingly). The manuscript under
the title L'Usage des plaisirs was divided in half, appearing both as the
book with that title and the one bearing the title Le Souci de soi.
Foucault's death days after their publication meant that these were his last
books. Les Aveux de la chair, listed as forthcoming in the publicity for
these volumes, never appeared. Nor did the volume with the material
originally planned for Le Souci de soi.
The ongoing publication of Foucault's lecture courses at the Collhge de
France is providing fascinating insight into the themes he was concerned
with through the 1970s and early 1980s. L'Hermineutique du sujet, the third
published so far, provides both a tantalising glimpse of the material on
Christianity that had been outlined in the previous two courses, as yet
unpublished, but also is much closer to the original intention of Le Souci
de soi than the book which actually appeared under that title. This course
is orientated very explicitly toward the question of the care of the self,
which was discussed only in summary in part two of the book. For example,
there is an extended discussion of Plato's Alcibiades (whose authorship is
disputed), including Neoplatonism's reading of the text, material on writing
and reading, and analysis of the work of Seneca and Plutarch. However,
compared to the other courses published, L'Hermineutique du sujet is much
closer to the summary published during Foucault's life (recently translated
in the Ethics volume), which therefore provides an accurate overview.
Equally Foucault was at this point in his life a regular visiting lecturer
and so many of the themes of this course have been discussed elsewhere,
notably in the volume Technologies of the Self. New things are thrown up,
but there are fewer surprises than those in Les Anormaux [The Abnormals] and
+Il faut difendre la sociiti; ['Society must be Defended'].
The hermeneutics of the title is not simply a cataloguing of different modes
of the subject, nor is it merely a historical inquiry, but it is a part of
the "genealogy of the modern subject", the "historical ontology of
ourselves", which Foucault announced in late interviews. It is an
examination into the constitution of the subject. The main theme of the
course is the Greek notion of epimeleia heautou, whose Latin equivalent is
that of cura sui, the idea that we should concern ourselves with ourselves,
that we should take care of ourselves. The command 'know thyself' is only
one aspect of this wider concern with the self, an art of existence - techne
tou biou. Foucault suggests that this can be found in numerous Greek and
Latin works, and as well as those already mentioned there are discussions of
the portrayal of Socrates in the Apology, of Epicurus, Epictetus and
Stoicism. However it can also be found in texts such as Philo of
Alexandria's On the Contemplative Life, Plotinus' Enneads, and works by St.
Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa. The notion of the care of the self
is therefore used as a means of explaining a wide range of texts and
historical periods. From five centuries before Christ to the 5th-6th century
after, this is a notion Foucault thinks runs through all Greek, Hellenistic
and Roman philosophy, and Christian spirituality. It is a way of being that
is developed over the course of a millennium, that has implications even
today, and that goes through numerous "avatars and transformations" (p.
173).
Foucault suggests that studying the culture of the self is essential in
order to shed light on the history of subjectivity and the history of the
relationship between the subject and the truth. This relation, which is in
some sense the crucial concern of the History of Sexuality series, is
important for a number of reasons. First, Foucault suggests in a few places
that the way to get around the problematic notion of the subject was to
write a genealogy of that very concept. Second Foucault thinks, it is
politically important because it is at the heart of understanding the notion
of governing. Government, of the self and of others, the management of an
individual life and the management of a city (p. 81) is a central theme to
this course. It clearly links to earlier concerns with the body and the
social body or population and will also be crucial in understanding his
interest in Christianity. The relation of spirituality, the monastic life,
and asceticism to group notions of the flock and pastoral power are referred
to continually throughout this course (see, for example, pp. 172, 240-3,
345-7), even if their full elaboration is elsewhere. As Foucault says, "it
is this question of the relation between telling the truth and the
government of the subject, that I want now to pose from ancient thought to
that of Christianity" (p. 220).
Aside from these main themes, there is an important discussion of kairos as
a critical time in attaining active power over oneself in schooling, erotic
development and politics (p. 84); an examination of the figure of Faust in
the work of Marlowe, Lessing and Goethe (pp. 296-7); and a suggestion of the
relation between Lucian's dialogues and Woody Allen's films (p. 89). At one
point Foucault complements his long standing interest in Oedipus the King
with a brief reading of Oedipus at Colonus (p. 426). The discussions of such
figures as Marcus Aurelius, Pythagoras, Demetrius Phalereus, Lucilius,
Musonius Rufus, and Pliny the Younger generally go further than those in
Foucault's other work. There are also several references forward in the
history of philosophy, with Descartes, Kant and Hegel particularly weaved
into this overall narrative. In a passage written (but not delivered) to
conclude the course Foucault makes this explicit: "And if the task left by
the Aufkldrung (that the Phenomenology moves toward the absolute), is of
interrogating upon what our system of objective knowing rests, it is also
one of interrogating upon what the mode of the experience of oneself rests"
(p. 467).
The course is somewhat different from those that are already published.
Foucault was contracted to give 26 hours of classes a year, of which no more
than half could be seminars. Until the 1980s he held the maximum number of
seminars possible. However, in this course there are 24 hours of lectures, a
two hour lecture for twelve weeks, which means that it is substantially
longer than the others. Foucault's plan is to lecture between 9.15 and
11.15am, with a short break of five minutes or so in the middle. His
intention is to provide a general theoretical discussion in the first hour,
and then a close reading of a text or texts in the second. The first week is
indicative of how flexible this arrangement is. He overruns the first hour
and then fails to complete the reading in the second.
Another thing that seems notable in this edition is the use made of
unpublished materials. A letter left at Foucault's death requested 'no
posthumous publications', and so the courses have circumvented this by
transcribing the tapes of the lectures verbatim. However, whilst for
previous volumes Daniel Defert, who inherited Foucault's literary estate,
had provided some material to aid the editors, here he seems to have
exceeded that. The editor of this course, Fridiric Gros, makes reference to
five large dossiers of material that Defert provided. The first is the
course manuscript, which Gros has used to correct inadequacies in the tape
recording where possible (unlike earlier courses which substituted ellipses
for inaudible passages). The remaining dossiers are thematic and contain
notebooks of various elaborations of sections, ideas, etc. Some of these are
drafts of History of Sexuality chapters we have, some appear elsewhere, but
several are for this course. However, there are passages which appear worked
out, claims Gros, that do not appear anywhere. He bemoans this, suggesting
that some of them would really help situate to the later Foucault's work.
Indeed, in a number of places, Gros quotes long passages from these
unpublished sources. Foucault scholars will surely rejoice at this, but this
seems to me to be a more lenient interpretation of the legal position. Of
course this may simply be a product of this course being from the 1980s
rather than the 1970s. This course was part of unfinished project: the
earlier courses part of an abandoned one. Given Foucault's concern that some
Max Brod would gain access to his archives, some material - for example the
draft of La Chair et le corps - was destroyed.
Finally the course is remarkable for being one of the very few places where
Foucault discusses his relation to Heidegger. Foucault is asked by one of
his auditors about role of Lacanian concepts in his thinking of the issues
of truth and subjectivity. Foucault suggests that in the twentieth century,
there have not been many people who have raised questions of truth, the
subject and the relation between the two. For him, there are only two:
Heidegger and Lacan. As he thinks people will have guessed, it is starting
from Heidegger that he has tried to think through these issues (pp. 180-2).
In particular Foucault is taking up Heidegger's question of how a particular
understanding of techne and the concomitant knowledge of the object was
central to understanding how being came to be forgotten. For Foucault it is
important to ask how this notion of techne is related to the formation of
the Western subject, and the relations of freedom, constraint, truth and
error which are associated with it (p. 505). This should act as a valuable
corrective to those who suggest that it is difficult to give a Heideggerian
reading of Foucault's central concern of the 1980s, with subjectivity, truth
and ethics.
L'Hermineutique du sujet is a valuable addition to the ongoing publication
of Foucault's lecture courses, even though its full value will only be
realised when read in conjunction with the courses from at least the
preceding two years. As well as the lecture course itself this volume
contains the course summary mentioned above, a detailed schematic contents
table, and an extremely useful "Situation of the course" by the editor. The
text itself is complemented by the addition of bibliographical references
and cross-references to published works and other lecture courses. This is
particularly helpful and continues the high standard of recent French
editions of Foucault's work.
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Sometime back there was an attempt at a discussion of this text on and
beyond this list, but it fell apart after about 6 of the lectures.
I did write a review of the book, which appeared in The Heythrop Journal,
Vol 44 No 1, January 2003, pp. 88-91.It's pasted below. I think you will
find new material on subjectivity, but it's pretty deeply buried in the
book, along with a lot of familiar material. I found it by far the least
interesting of the four lecture courses currently out, but that is not an
opinion that would be shared by everyone here.
Hope it's of interest
Stuart
L'Hermineutique du sujet: Cours au Collhge de France (1981-1982). By Michel
Foucault, edited by Fridiric Gros. Pp. xi, 546, Paris, Gallimard/Seuil,
2001, EUR24.39.
By the early 1980s, the long detour the research for Foucault's History of
Sexuality had taken through notions of confession, pastoral power, and
governmentality had, it seemed, at long last yielded a volume on
Christianity. Rather than the original title La Chair et le corps [The Flesh
and the Body] this was now named Les Aveux de la chair [Confessions of the
Flesh]. However, the introduction to this volume rested, Foucault suggested,
upon a number of 'clichis' about pagan ethics, which were misleading, based
as they were on generalisations in the secondary literature. Turning back
again, he wanted to sort out his view of the earlier period before he
published this book on Christianity, and so began an investigation into
Greek and Roman practices of the self.
In 1983, in discussions with Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, Foucault
outlined the way in which he expected his revised History of Sexuality would
run. Rather than the thematic plan he had introduced in the first volume in
1976, he was now working much more historically. There would be two further
volumes - L'Usage des plaisirs [The use of pleasures] and Les Aveux de la
chair. In addition there would be a volume separate from the 'sex series',
entitled Le Souci de soi [The care of the self]. This last volume would be
composed of different papers about the self, including a commentary on
Plato's Alcibiades and a discussion of the role of reading and writing in
constituting the self. However, between this interview and the publication
of the next two volumes, Foucault changed his mind yet again (the French
translation of the interview was revised accordingly). The manuscript under
the title L'Usage des plaisirs was divided in half, appearing both as the
book with that title and the one bearing the title Le Souci de soi.
Foucault's death days after their publication meant that these were his last
books. Les Aveux de la chair, listed as forthcoming in the publicity for
these volumes, never appeared. Nor did the volume with the material
originally planned for Le Souci de soi.
The ongoing publication of Foucault's lecture courses at the Collhge de
France is providing fascinating insight into the themes he was concerned
with through the 1970s and early 1980s. L'Hermineutique du sujet, the third
published so far, provides both a tantalising glimpse of the material on
Christianity that had been outlined in the previous two courses, as yet
unpublished, but also is much closer to the original intention of Le Souci
de soi than the book which actually appeared under that title. This course
is orientated very explicitly toward the question of the care of the self,
which was discussed only in summary in part two of the book. For example,
there is an extended discussion of Plato's Alcibiades (whose authorship is
disputed), including Neoplatonism's reading of the text, material on writing
and reading, and analysis of the work of Seneca and Plutarch. However,
compared to the other courses published, L'Hermineutique du sujet is much
closer to the summary published during Foucault's life (recently translated
in the Ethics volume), which therefore provides an accurate overview.
Equally Foucault was at this point in his life a regular visiting lecturer
and so many of the themes of this course have been discussed elsewhere,
notably in the volume Technologies of the Self. New things are thrown up,
but there are fewer surprises than those in Les Anormaux [The Abnormals] and
+Il faut difendre la sociiti; ['Society must be Defended'].
The hermeneutics of the title is not simply a cataloguing of different modes
of the subject, nor is it merely a historical inquiry, but it is a part of
the "genealogy of the modern subject", the "historical ontology of
ourselves", which Foucault announced in late interviews. It is an
examination into the constitution of the subject. The main theme of the
course is the Greek notion of epimeleia heautou, whose Latin equivalent is
that of cura sui, the idea that we should concern ourselves with ourselves,
that we should take care of ourselves. The command 'know thyself' is only
one aspect of this wider concern with the self, an art of existence - techne
tou biou. Foucault suggests that this can be found in numerous Greek and
Latin works, and as well as those already mentioned there are discussions of
the portrayal of Socrates in the Apology, of Epicurus, Epictetus and
Stoicism. However it can also be found in texts such as Philo of
Alexandria's On the Contemplative Life, Plotinus' Enneads, and works by St.
Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa. The notion of the care of the self
is therefore used as a means of explaining a wide range of texts and
historical periods. From five centuries before Christ to the 5th-6th century
after, this is a notion Foucault thinks runs through all Greek, Hellenistic
and Roman philosophy, and Christian spirituality. It is a way of being that
is developed over the course of a millennium, that has implications even
today, and that goes through numerous "avatars and transformations" (p.
173).
Foucault suggests that studying the culture of the self is essential in
order to shed light on the history of subjectivity and the history of the
relationship between the subject and the truth. This relation, which is in
some sense the crucial concern of the History of Sexuality series, is
important for a number of reasons. First, Foucault suggests in a few places
that the way to get around the problematic notion of the subject was to
write a genealogy of that very concept. Second Foucault thinks, it is
politically important because it is at the heart of understanding the notion
of governing. Government, of the self and of others, the management of an
individual life and the management of a city (p. 81) is a central theme to
this course. It clearly links to earlier concerns with the body and the
social body or population and will also be crucial in understanding his
interest in Christianity. The relation of spirituality, the monastic life,
and asceticism to group notions of the flock and pastoral power are referred
to continually throughout this course (see, for example, pp. 172, 240-3,
345-7), even if their full elaboration is elsewhere. As Foucault says, "it
is this question of the relation between telling the truth and the
government of the subject, that I want now to pose from ancient thought to
that of Christianity" (p. 220).
Aside from these main themes, there is an important discussion of kairos as
a critical time in attaining active power over oneself in schooling, erotic
development and politics (p. 84); an examination of the figure of Faust in
the work of Marlowe, Lessing and Goethe (pp. 296-7); and a suggestion of the
relation between Lucian's dialogues and Woody Allen's films (p. 89). At one
point Foucault complements his long standing interest in Oedipus the King
with a brief reading of Oedipus at Colonus (p. 426). The discussions of such
figures as Marcus Aurelius, Pythagoras, Demetrius Phalereus, Lucilius,
Musonius Rufus, and Pliny the Younger generally go further than those in
Foucault's other work. There are also several references forward in the
history of philosophy, with Descartes, Kant and Hegel particularly weaved
into this overall narrative. In a passage written (but not delivered) to
conclude the course Foucault makes this explicit: "And if the task left by
the Aufkldrung (that the Phenomenology moves toward the absolute), is of
interrogating upon what our system of objective knowing rests, it is also
one of interrogating upon what the mode of the experience of oneself rests"
(p. 467).
The course is somewhat different from those that are already published.
Foucault was contracted to give 26 hours of classes a year, of which no more
than half could be seminars. Until the 1980s he held the maximum number of
seminars possible. However, in this course there are 24 hours of lectures, a
two hour lecture for twelve weeks, which means that it is substantially
longer than the others. Foucault's plan is to lecture between 9.15 and
11.15am, with a short break of five minutes or so in the middle. His
intention is to provide a general theoretical discussion in the first hour,
and then a close reading of a text or texts in the second. The first week is
indicative of how flexible this arrangement is. He overruns the first hour
and then fails to complete the reading in the second.
Another thing that seems notable in this edition is the use made of
unpublished materials. A letter left at Foucault's death requested 'no
posthumous publications', and so the courses have circumvented this by
transcribing the tapes of the lectures verbatim. However, whilst for
previous volumes Daniel Defert, who inherited Foucault's literary estate,
had provided some material to aid the editors, here he seems to have
exceeded that. The editor of this course, Fridiric Gros, makes reference to
five large dossiers of material that Defert provided. The first is the
course manuscript, which Gros has used to correct inadequacies in the tape
recording where possible (unlike earlier courses which substituted ellipses
for inaudible passages). The remaining dossiers are thematic and contain
notebooks of various elaborations of sections, ideas, etc. Some of these are
drafts of History of Sexuality chapters we have, some appear elsewhere, but
several are for this course. However, there are passages which appear worked
out, claims Gros, that do not appear anywhere. He bemoans this, suggesting
that some of them would really help situate to the later Foucault's work.
Indeed, in a number of places, Gros quotes long passages from these
unpublished sources. Foucault scholars will surely rejoice at this, but this
seems to me to be a more lenient interpretation of the legal position. Of
course this may simply be a product of this course being from the 1980s
rather than the 1970s. This course was part of unfinished project: the
earlier courses part of an abandoned one. Given Foucault's concern that some
Max Brod would gain access to his archives, some material - for example the
draft of La Chair et le corps - was destroyed.
Finally the course is remarkable for being one of the very few places where
Foucault discusses his relation to Heidegger. Foucault is asked by one of
his auditors about role of Lacanian concepts in his thinking of the issues
of truth and subjectivity. Foucault suggests that in the twentieth century,
there have not been many people who have raised questions of truth, the
subject and the relation between the two. For him, there are only two:
Heidegger and Lacan. As he thinks people will have guessed, it is starting
from Heidegger that he has tried to think through these issues (pp. 180-2).
In particular Foucault is taking up Heidegger's question of how a particular
understanding of techne and the concomitant knowledge of the object was
central to understanding how being came to be forgotten. For Foucault it is
important to ask how this notion of techne is related to the formation of
the Western subject, and the relations of freedom, constraint, truth and
error which are associated with it (p. 505). This should act as a valuable
corrective to those who suggest that it is difficult to give a Heideggerian
reading of Foucault's central concern of the 1980s, with subjectivity, truth
and ethics.
L'Hermineutique du sujet is a valuable addition to the ongoing publication
of Foucault's lecture courses, even though its full value will only be
realised when read in conjunction with the courses from at least the
preceding two years. As well as the lecture course itself this volume
contains the course summary mentioned above, a detailed schematic contents
table, and an extremely useful "Situation of the course" by the editor. The
text itself is complemented by the addition of bibliographical references
and cross-references to published works and other lecture courses. This is
particularly helpful and continues the high standard of recent French
editions of Foucault's work.
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