Re: critique or criticism?

Hi Mark,

> You mean pouvoir.
yes! simple spelling mistake...

> The question you ask is not really to the point.
> Foucault hardly talks about power in these works, and where he does
> he hasn't developed the conecpt of power (pouvoir) he does later, so it's
> really irrelevant whether he says pouvoir or puissance (both being common
> French nouns, he quite possibly uses both at various times).

Your answer would seem to suggest that my question is precisely the point, and anything but irrelevant:

1) there is quite clearly a model of power operative in MC, BC, and OT; and while it is true that Foucault did not theoriese this model, it is evident on more or less every page of these text: as Phil notes, fouculat has stated, albeit retrospectively, that ?when I think back now, I ask myself what else was I talking about in Madness and Civilization or The Birth of the Clinic, but power??('Truth and Power').

2) the model of power operative in these text, as foucault notes elsewhere, was primarliy what he later came to refer to as the repressive model of power, (and, in addition, the model of knowledge was that of 'dominant ideology' (On the Government of the Living­)); however, there are also formulations of power, albeit implict, that prefigure - are the conditions of possibility for - foucault's later move to both pouvoir-savoir and governmentalité.

3) as you suggest, foucault had not yet thematised the notion of power along the lines of pouvoir/savoir; and thus it seems highly relevant to me to note the specific term foucault uses for power in these text, and the way in which he uses such terms - noun, verb.

4) therefore, i think it quite a legitimate question to ask wether or not foucault used the term "pouvire" or puissance in MC, BC, and OT; and highly relevant to note that, as you state, he (a) uses both terms interchangably, and (b) uses them as "common French nouns" and not as verbs.

Regards - Kevin.


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