Foucault

Life

• Early life
  • Born 1924 in France
  • Born to affluent family, father was a surgeon
  • Ashamed of his bourgeoise roots
  • Academically proficient
  • 1946: enrolls in Ecole Normale Superieur
  • He was reclusive, put into a psychiatric hospital
  • 1950: joins communist party under influence of Louis Althusser
  • Leaves after a few years after experiences with homophobia and antisemitism
  • Writes about psychology, knowledge, prison system, and sexuality
  • He was the best paid-professor in French uni system “Professor of History of Systems of Thought”

Philosophy

Power

• Power is the common theme in his work
  • Insists it was not his main focus, it was a constant theme however
  • Comes from prison system
  • Shift from the 18th to the 19th century from sovereign power to disciplinary power
  • Less public punishment, then moving to taking people out of society
  • Sovereign power
  • Clear ruler and source of power
  • Public displays of power, executions, crime against state, power over all less obvious
  • Interferes with the body of the punished
  • Disciplinary power
  • Ubiquitous
  • Outside public domain
  • Disciplines the mid of the criminal through mild interference with the body
  • Not just about punishing the body, but changing how they think
  • Power is imbedded in all social interactions
  • Micro power: over an individual
  • Macro: of the society
• Panopticism
  • Bentham’s panopticon prison system
  • Inmates discipline themselves to follow the rules
  • Power of inmates come from within themselves
• Governmentality
  • Power is a network of hierarchical relationships
  • There can be mutual power between individuals
  • Refers to this as “biopower”
  • State has authority over abortion, euthanasia, vaccination
  • If government is not one unified body, how are they expected to control what is happening?
  • Governmentality: the art of gov, the conduct of conduct
  • Police
  • Surveillance
  • Fines for punishments
  • Prohibitions
  • These are not always enforced or being monitored: but it elicits good behavior
  • Regime of truth: state decides what is true, controls academic curriculum
  • Society of Norms: What is expected, what is morality and norms is determined by the state
  • State tyrannizes this way through this structure
  • His ability to express these ideas shows that he is now so powerless in revealing this hidden structures
• Progress
  • Did not really believe in progress
  • History of Madness shows how madness has been treated differently
  • Middle Ages: Could still be part of society, exercised in severe cases
  • 18th Century: Enlightenment leads to institutionalization/prisoned
  • 20th Century: Rehabilitation
  • This translated to gov is governmentality: exercising power over citizens
  • Reason of State: Justification to exercise state power

Impact

• Post-moderism

Friedman and Foucault

• Both somewhat libertarian
• Influence of their background
• Very public figures
• Structuralism
  • Unseen structures