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--- Em qui, 29/1/09, Nicholas J. Kiersey <nicholaskiersey@xxxxxxx> escreveu:
De: Nicholas J. Kiersey <nicholaskiersey@xxxxxxx>
Assunto: Re: [Foucault-L] request for a seminar in political philosophy
Para: "Mailing-list" <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Data: Quinta-feira, 29 de Janeiro de 2009, 1:15
Hi Chetan,
Just wanted to second your recommendation of Mark Kelly's book - we're
covered in snow in Ohio today, so I have been getting stuck into a
copy of the book that I cajoled my library into acquiring for me. Must
say, the discussion of power is really quite thorough and stimulating.
The argument Kelly presents is timely for me because I have been
emailing recently with a scholar of International Political Economy
who insists that Foucault's model of power has too many problems: its
all encompassing, it reduces human beings to mere vehicles, ignores
the role of strategically located individuals ('organic
intellectuals'), and makes every single 'free' choice ultimately an
inauthentic one.
What I think Kelly recognizes is that these sorts of casual dismissals
of Foucault make little or no effort to engage with Foucault on his
own terms. By the end of Kelly's second chapter on power, its clear
that while Foucault might have done more to help us understand the
various levels at which power operates, and the directions it travels,
there is a fairly consistent framework to be gleaned. Moreover, I
think Kelly does a very important job in explaining the problem that
thinking in terms of these sorts of power relations helps us solve:
Namely, that without Foucault's focus on the relation between the
subject and power, we end up making power relations completely
autonomous from human agency (thereby arguably making us all victims
of history).
So, the intentionality of power is immanent to our own. But Kelly
reminds us that this in no way suggests we are all equals in power's
regime. There is a nice quote he gives from Foucault, writing in 1977,
that "In so far as power relations are an unequal and relatively
stable relation of forces, its clear that this implies an above and a
below, a difference in potentials." There is space here for organic
intellectuals to some extent, isn't there?
Another great quote: "I don't believe this question of "who
exercises
power?" can be resolved unless that other question of "how does it
happen?" is resolved at the same time" Now this is hardly to say that
one's 'free' choice is always really power's choice. Rather,
its just
to say that there are conditions to thought. Its you doing the
thinking, to not always to the extent you might wish.
Great stuff. But I have questions. And I should say upfront that I am
no philosopher. Merely a humble, aspiring theorist of International
Relations. So there are likely subtleties to Kelly's work I might be
missing. But when all is said and done, aren't we really concluding
simply that Foucault's theory of power is multi-scaled, multi-leveled,
and reversible? If so, why not try to create a more systematic way of
doing this like, say, Deleuze and Guattari do. Okay, they do it in an
incredibly complex way that requires great patience on the part of
their students, but their intention of their materialism seems to boil
down to a similar theory of power -
Or we might want to invoke Hardt and Negri, who really seem to be
quite compatible with the interpretation of Foucault that Kelly is
putting forward, except that they want to inject a retrospective
linearity to struggle ... some have issues with that but I'm not sure
that they are doing more than joining dots to tell a similar story
about power except with a focus on the 'the glass as half full' -
Anyway, all very tentative and admittedly based on an all too
superficial reading -
Sincerely,
Nicholas
On Jan 28, 2009, at 17:25, Chetan Vemuri wrote:
> some suggestions:
> Discipline and Punish
> Society Must be Defended
> Security Territory Population (very good for governmentality)
> The Hermeneutics of the Subject perhaps? In terms of ethics of
> governmentality
> I also recommend The Archaeology of Knowledge if you can find some
> way to
> put that in, as it provides key insights into Foucault's later work
> as well
> as its own merits on the role of discourse and the construction of
> knowledge.
>
> in terms of work concerning his influence:
> anything by David Halperin, Judith Butler, Jana Sawicki, Giorgio
> Agamben,
> Colin Gordon, Nikolas Rose, Partha Chatterjee or Arnold Davidson
> should work
> fine.
> Mark Kelly is actually releasing a book very soon on The Political
> Philosophy of Michel Foucault, regarding the coherent progressive
> political
> program he finds in Foucault's work.
>
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 6:19 AM, Annelies Decat <
> Annelies.Decat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Dear List members,
>>
>> I am going to prepare some reading for a seminar on Foucault, and I
>> am
>> looking for some suggestions on which texts to include. The seminar
>> is
>> meant for students doing a master in philosophy. It is a reading
>> seminar in political philosophy, focusing on another author each
>> year.
>> My idea was to roughly divide the seminar into two parts, with the
>> first part focusing on his work, and the second on his influence, or
>> the way he has inspired other work (for example feminist theory,
>> postcolonial thinking, governmentality studies, etc.)
>>
>> I would welcome any suggestions on which texts of Foucault you find
>> most suitable for this purpose, which topics should be covered and
>> also which discussions of his work could be included.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Annelies Decat
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Institute of Philosophy (University of Leuven)
>> Centre for Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy
>>
>> Contact:
>> Parkstraat 45 bus 3602 - 3000 Leuven
>> T. ++32 16 323245
>> F. ++32 16 323088
>>
>> Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Foucault-L mailing list
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Chetan Vemuri
> West Des Moines, IA
> aryavartacnsrn@xxxxxxxxx
> (515)-418-2771
> "You say you want a Revolution! Well you know, we all want to change
> the
> world"
> _______________________________________________
> Foucault-L mailing list
----------------------------------
Nicholas J. Kiersey, PhD
Assistant Professor, Political Science
Ohio University, Chillicothe
_______________________________________________
Foucault-L mailing list
Veja quais são os assuntos do momento no Yahoo! +Buscados
http://br.maisbuscados.yahoo.com
--- Em qui, 29/1/09, Nicholas J. Kiersey <nicholaskiersey@xxxxxxx> escreveu:
De: Nicholas J. Kiersey <nicholaskiersey@xxxxxxx>
Assunto: Re: [Foucault-L] request for a seminar in political philosophy
Para: "Mailing-list" <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Data: Quinta-feira, 29 de Janeiro de 2009, 1:15
Hi Chetan,
Just wanted to second your recommendation of Mark Kelly's book - we're
covered in snow in Ohio today, so I have been getting stuck into a
copy of the book that I cajoled my library into acquiring for me. Must
say, the discussion of power is really quite thorough and stimulating.
The argument Kelly presents is timely for me because I have been
emailing recently with a scholar of International Political Economy
who insists that Foucault's model of power has too many problems: its
all encompassing, it reduces human beings to mere vehicles, ignores
the role of strategically located individuals ('organic
intellectuals'), and makes every single 'free' choice ultimately an
inauthentic one.
What I think Kelly recognizes is that these sorts of casual dismissals
of Foucault make little or no effort to engage with Foucault on his
own terms. By the end of Kelly's second chapter on power, its clear
that while Foucault might have done more to help us understand the
various levels at which power operates, and the directions it travels,
there is a fairly consistent framework to be gleaned. Moreover, I
think Kelly does a very important job in explaining the problem that
thinking in terms of these sorts of power relations helps us solve:
Namely, that without Foucault's focus on the relation between the
subject and power, we end up making power relations completely
autonomous from human agency (thereby arguably making us all victims
of history).
So, the intentionality of power is immanent to our own. But Kelly
reminds us that this in no way suggests we are all equals in power's
regime. There is a nice quote he gives from Foucault, writing in 1977,
that "In so far as power relations are an unequal and relatively
stable relation of forces, its clear that this implies an above and a
below, a difference in potentials." There is space here for organic
intellectuals to some extent, isn't there?
Another great quote: "I don't believe this question of "who
exercises
power?" can be resolved unless that other question of "how does it
happen?" is resolved at the same time" Now this is hardly to say that
one's 'free' choice is always really power's choice. Rather,
its just
to say that there are conditions to thought. Its you doing the
thinking, to not always to the extent you might wish.
Great stuff. But I have questions. And I should say upfront that I am
no philosopher. Merely a humble, aspiring theorist of International
Relations. So there are likely subtleties to Kelly's work I might be
missing. But when all is said and done, aren't we really concluding
simply that Foucault's theory of power is multi-scaled, multi-leveled,
and reversible? If so, why not try to create a more systematic way of
doing this like, say, Deleuze and Guattari do. Okay, they do it in an
incredibly complex way that requires great patience on the part of
their students, but their intention of their materialism seems to boil
down to a similar theory of power -
Or we might want to invoke Hardt and Negri, who really seem to be
quite compatible with the interpretation of Foucault that Kelly is
putting forward, except that they want to inject a retrospective
linearity to struggle ... some have issues with that but I'm not sure
that they are doing more than joining dots to tell a similar story
about power except with a focus on the 'the glass as half full' -
Anyway, all very tentative and admittedly based on an all too
superficial reading -
Sincerely,
Nicholas
On Jan 28, 2009, at 17:25, Chetan Vemuri wrote:
> some suggestions:
> Discipline and Punish
> Society Must be Defended
> Security Territory Population (very good for governmentality)
> The Hermeneutics of the Subject perhaps? In terms of ethics of
> governmentality
> I also recommend The Archaeology of Knowledge if you can find some
> way to
> put that in, as it provides key insights into Foucault's later work
> as well
> as its own merits on the role of discourse and the construction of
> knowledge.
>
> in terms of work concerning his influence:
> anything by David Halperin, Judith Butler, Jana Sawicki, Giorgio
> Agamben,
> Colin Gordon, Nikolas Rose, Partha Chatterjee or Arnold Davidson
> should work
> fine.
> Mark Kelly is actually releasing a book very soon on The Political
> Philosophy of Michel Foucault, regarding the coherent progressive
> political
> program he finds in Foucault's work.
>
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 6:19 AM, Annelies Decat <
> Annelies.Decat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Dear List members,
>>
>> I am going to prepare some reading for a seminar on Foucault, and I
>> am
>> looking for some suggestions on which texts to include. The seminar
>> is
>> meant for students doing a master in philosophy. It is a reading
>> seminar in political philosophy, focusing on another author each
>> year.
>> My idea was to roughly divide the seminar into two parts, with the
>> first part focusing on his work, and the second on his influence, or
>> the way he has inspired other work (for example feminist theory,
>> postcolonial thinking, governmentality studies, etc.)
>>
>> I would welcome any suggestions on which texts of Foucault you find
>> most suitable for this purpose, which topics should be covered and
>> also which discussions of his work could be included.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Annelies Decat
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Institute of Philosophy (University of Leuven)
>> Centre for Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy
>>
>> Contact:
>> Parkstraat 45 bus 3602 - 3000 Leuven
>> T. ++32 16 323245
>> F. ++32 16 323088
>>
>> Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Foucault-L mailing list
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Chetan Vemuri
> West Des Moines, IA
> aryavartacnsrn@xxxxxxxxx
> (515)-418-2771
> "You say you want a Revolution! Well you know, we all want to change
> the
> world"
> _______________________________________________
> Foucault-L mailing list
----------------------------------
Nicholas J. Kiersey, PhD
Assistant Professor, Political Science
Ohio University, Chillicothe
_______________________________________________
Foucault-L mailing list
Veja quais são os assuntos do momento no Yahoo! +Buscados
http://br.maisbuscados.yahoo.com