Hello,
as this is my first post i'm going to introduce myself:
I'm studying at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Currently, i'm writing my master thesis about Foucault. My focus is on the problem of emancipation in Foucaults work. So my work will develop around Foucaults concepts of Enlightment, freedom, subjectivity and ethos.
In some aspects it is closely linked to your work Sam. I have no concrete answer to your question, but i have kind of an idea, where you probably can find some answers (at least i'm trying to find my answers there). I think the central sentence in the essay "What is Enlightment" is found at the very end of it:
"The critical ontology of ourselves has to be considered not, certainly, as a theory, a doctrine, nor even es a permanent body of knowledge that is accumulating; it has to be concieved as an attitude, an ethos, a philosophical life in which the critique of what we are is at one and the same time the historical analysis of the limits that are imposed on us and an experiment with the posibility of going beyond them."
I think this ethos or philosophical life is the concept, which can function as the instrument of changing power-relations. Foucault is not into making a big revolution, for several reasons. E.g. he says in the book "Spektrum der Genealogie" that the central mission of philosophy is to reject, what we are, and to build, what we could be. This is probalby the Foucaultian revolution. How this is achieved though, i don't know, but this is the main point of my thesis, and i think the answer could be found in the second and third part of "the history and sexuality", where he describes the techniques of the self.
I hope i explained my thoughts clearly. I'm looking forward getting some replies.
Alexander Weiß
as this is my first post i'm going to introduce myself:
I'm studying at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Currently, i'm writing my master thesis about Foucault. My focus is on the problem of emancipation in Foucaults work. So my work will develop around Foucaults concepts of Enlightment, freedom, subjectivity and ethos.
In some aspects it is closely linked to your work Sam. I have no concrete answer to your question, but i have kind of an idea, where you probably can find some answers (at least i'm trying to find my answers there). I think the central sentence in the essay "What is Enlightment" is found at the very end of it:
"The critical ontology of ourselves has to be considered not, certainly, as a theory, a doctrine, nor even es a permanent body of knowledge that is accumulating; it has to be concieved as an attitude, an ethos, a philosophical life in which the critique of what we are is at one and the same time the historical analysis of the limits that are imposed on us and an experiment with the posibility of going beyond them."
I think this ethos or philosophical life is the concept, which can function as the instrument of changing power-relations. Foucault is not into making a big revolution, for several reasons. E.g. he says in the book "Spektrum der Genealogie" that the central mission of philosophy is to reject, what we are, and to build, what we could be. This is probalby the Foucaultian revolution. How this is achieved though, i don't know, but this is the main point of my thesis, and i think the answer could be found in the second and third part of "the history and sexuality", where he describes the techniques of the self.
I hope i explained my thoughts clearly. I'm looking forward getting some replies.
Alexander Weiß