Questions tagged [foucault]
Paul-Michel Foucault is a French philosopher that studied ethics, epistomology, and social constructs.
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Distinction body / individual: was Foucault the first to make it? Did he coin this expression?
You now often hear people talking about the body where one could say the individual or the people ("les gens" in French).
I've found in Foucault's Discipline & punish the following ...
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What is the "historicised a priori"?
While browsing this question I stumbled upon the concept of historicised a priori citing Dilthey and Foucalt.
Can somebody explain this concept to me?
Also, could anyone point me in the direction of ...
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When is a subject position in a discourse antagonistic with others?
Just trying to relate my ladybird book of Foucault knowledge (though I've read him) to chat-gpt. When is a subject position in a discourse antagonistic with others? When is an LLM that is more ...
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Does Descartes exclude madness from his meditations?
For Descartes, is madness fundamentally different to dreaming?
Reading these blog posts (I am unfamiliar with the discussion really), which has a few points against Foucault's analysis that it is ...
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Understanding Foucalt's reasoning when describing Palazzo's work
In Foucault's lecture series "Security, Territory and Population", in the lecture of 15 March 1978, Foucault traces what is understood by the concept of raison d'État, starting with Palazzo'...
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Foucault and 2 remarks he makes in Oct 1978 in a text about the Iranian uprising
In an article published in Le Nouvel Observateur in Oct 1978 (here 1), Foucault says two things I'm not sure I understand: first that during his journey in Iran everything he heard about the ...
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What is the relationship between technologies, and Foucault's and Agamben's apparatuses/dispositifs?
I'm trying to understand both the extension/inclusion of these sets towards each other, as well as the causal relationship between these two, and I'm trying to understand both what Foucault originally ...
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What is Anti-humanism?
I tried to do my own research on it but I'm not very much cleared about it. Please explain it to me in simple language. this term is being used by Post-structuralism and postmodernists.
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A Foucalt-ian analysis of Gandhi's Satyagraha?
So I've recently tried delving into Foucault's idea of resistance and power:
where there is power, there is resistance, and yet, or rather
consequently, this resistance is never in a position of ...
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What is the opposite of heterotopia?
Michel Foucault's essay on heterotopias mentions the other real sites - where social order is maintained - that are "represented, contested, and inverted" by heterotopias. What exactly are ...
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Does Critical Theories (CRT, Queer Studies etc.) come from the Frankfurt school or post-modernism?
I know post colonial studies which is a critical theory began with Orientalism which uses Foucault's concept of discourse. But also Frankfurt School is widely credited with finding critical theory ...
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What does postmodernism say about Human Nature?
Chomsky who is anti-postmodernism believes humans have a nature which makes them inherently creative which can be achieved in a free society. This is in opposition to Foucault who talks bout the ...
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Why is post-modernism so often equated to Relativism, are there any responses in postmodern philosophy that challenges this?
I am refering to critiques of postmodernism that are presented here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/postmodernism-didnt-cause-trump-it-explains-him/2018/08/30/0939f7c4-9b12-11e8-843b-...
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What does this mean about critical theory?
In the introduction of her recent book "Between Gaia and Ground", Elizabeth Povinelli says:
This book examines four axioms of existence that have emerged in
recent years across a ...
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How did the french postmodernists and Rorty arrive to the same conclusion using different methodology?
Rorty founded pragmatism -> which is basically that words only get their meanign based on how they're used
French postmodernists on the other hand did different things all attacking Grand ...
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What is the difference between Subaltern and any other oppressed group?
This is in the context of deconstructionist Marxist Gayatri Spivak's reply to Foucualt and Deleuze and defense of Marx in her famous work Can The Subaltern Speak ?
Are the subaltern just uneducated ...
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What do poststructuralists mean by "power legitimates itself"?
"The post-structuralists assert that in any culture power legitimates itself through its connection to the validating mechanism for truth claims."
How is it possible to use truth as an ...
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How can one argue against absolute Relativism while being a Postmodernist?
A common criticism of postmodernism by the misunderstood and its opponents is that postmodernism justifies absolute moral relativism. I.e The claim that any claim is as true or good as any other, thus ...
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How would Focault's Archaelogy of Sciences view Physics which just attempts to describe physical reality and not turn humans into subjects?
His work i believe is great with Biology and Psychiatry etc. since it elucidates how humans are turned into subjects, but how does he reject grand theories derived from Physics which simply describes ...
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What is the post-modernist response to Francis Fukuyama's theory that technological developments give history a specific direction?
Since post-modernists reject unity points and Foucault's work shows one episteme to the other evolves completely randomly without any pattern, Fukuyama's theory here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
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How has Foucault and post modernism in general become the dominant lense of analysis in Western Academia and how do Hegelians and others oppose that?
I have read of the strong impact of Foucault (the most cited author ?) and post-modernist lenses in particular in Academia. From Edward Said's Orientalism to Spivak's work (which even doe was a ...
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What does it exactly mean to be a Hegelian in terms of politics what are they opposed to?
Does it simply mean viewing the progression of history as dialectic where internal contradictions within the imagining of a thesis sort themselves out dialectically ?
Does it mean a belief in ...
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A comprehensive reading of Foucault's theory of power
I have repeatedly encountered mentions and uses of Foucault's ideas when discussing socio-political issues, but have not had a proper introduction to his ideas. Recently, certain concepts from his ...
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What does Foucault mean by non-discursive practices? Aren't his examples of non-discursive practices actually discursive?
Foucault mentions that art and music are not discursive. How is it so? Foucault had interrogated the 'author' for instance, and largely historicises everything. How could art be autonomous for Foucalt,...
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What does Foucault mean by "boomerang"?
I emboldened a sentence that suggests Foucault might not have explained "boomerang" clearly.
Foucault’s boomerang: the new military urbanism | openDemocracy
Rather than merely highlighting ...
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What does Michel Foucault mean by the Classical Period?
I am reading Michel Foucault's works and often meet his references to the Classical Period.
So far I have find following definition in the internet:
The Classical Period - The time period from ...
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What are the relationships between Foucault's medical gaze, scientific investigation, and Buddhist detachment?
From this note from a clinical psychologist, the Foucault's gaze is described as:
... with this powerful gaze the physician could penetrate illusion and see through to the underlying reality, that ...
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Is Foucault's analysis of history opposed to absurdism?
Sisyphus, just like the absurd man, keeps pushing. Camus claims that
when Sisyphus acknowledges the futility of his task and the certainty
of his fate, he is freed to realize the absurdity of his ...
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'How to become what you are' supposing Foucault is right about the body?
The phrase is the subtitle of Ecce Homo. You can a short essay by Foucault, on Nietzsche, free of charge; it's also in his essential works: aesthetics, appearing originally in a book dedicated to ...
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Is there anything on early to mid Foucault and structuralism?
Is there anything on early to mid Foucault and structuralism? I've just started The Archeology of Knowledge, meant to be I think the bookend of his early writings, and he is going to some lengths to ...
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Discipline and Punish: what does Foucault mean by genetic accumulation?
In talking about how discipline creates the individual Foucault says:
It is the examination which, by combining hierarchical surveillance and normalizing judgement, assures the great disciplinary ...
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Did Heidegger talk about malice at all?
Did Heidegger talk about malice at all?
I agree and find interesting if not useful most of Nietzsche's aphorisms but felt that his analysis of malice was just weak, and obviously so. However, I liked ...
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Foucault and scientific revolutions
In the famous debate between Foucault and Chomsky (link), Foucault argues that there is no human nature really because, among other things, a scientific revolution in some science is just a revolution ...
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Define delegated Power (Foucault)
Can you explain what Foucault means with the term delegated power? The text I'm reading (Frank Nonnenmacher, 2009 - Politische Bildung in der Schule. Demokratisches Lernen
als Widerspruch im System) ...
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So much ad hominem against French continental philosophers and no true critiques -- can someone lead me to the right direction?
I continuously get awfully surprised to see so much hate and misunderstanding going around for the French philosophers of the 20th century, not only in academia, but on this forum, and elsewhere.
I ...
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Foucault and Derrida on spiritual liberation
Apart from his analysis of truth and power, when Foucault says...
...truth isn’t the reward of free spirits, the child of protracted
solitude, nor the privilege of those who have succeeded in ...
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What does Foucault mean by "regime of truth" and "discursive formation"?
I would like to clarify what Foucault means by "regime of truth", "discursive formation" and possibly related terms such as "truth game", "enunciative system".
Here is my guess from looking at some ...
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Historical Accuracy of Foucalt's works [duplicate]
I am beginning the "History of Sexuality" and wanted to ask to what degree should I take what Foucalt states about historical events in any of his works as accurate? From my understanding from looking ...
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In Madness and Civilization does Foucault say / imply that no-one loves a mad person?
In Madness and Civilization does Foucault say / imply that no-one loves a mad person? If not ever, then that it has been a system of power?
I can't tell whether or not I just made that up, when I read ...
user29495
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What's the difference between modern science and XVI century knowledge?
This doubt came up to me while I was reading Foucault's "The Order of Things".
In a few words, Foucault says that in the XVI century, accumulation of knowledge happened in two ways: (1) similarities ...
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What does Foucault mean by the "non-being of madness"?
I am quoting pages 175 and 176 from Madness and Civilization Chapter VI: Doctors and Patients [Vintage Books Edition 1988 which I believe is the standard edition]. Foucault is writing about the ...
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What is meant by this passage regarding Foucault?
I'm reading Brent Pickett's "Foucault and the Politics of Resistance" and on page 452 he writes the following:
At the heart of humanism, according to Foucault, is the theory of the
subject. ...
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What is this System of Right that consistently shows up in Foucault's work?
In his January 7, 1976 lecture, Foucault says:
The system of right, the domain of law, are permanent agents of these relations of domination... Right should be viewed not in terms of a legitimacy ...
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can kantian archetypes represent a priori concepts
In Michel Foucault's Folie et Déraison: Histoire de la Folie à l'âge Classique(History of Madness), he describes how society, throughout history, view(ed/s) and react(ed/s) to madness. The primary ...
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Why should we listen to Michel Foucault if he based his arguments on biased historical claims?
I have only recently heard about philosophical ideas of Michel Foucault from a friend of mine. His claims, those concerning madness for example, sound iconoclastic to me. After looking up some ...
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What is post sexualism, and is there a non confessional imperative?
Who knows their sexuality, rather than their preferred behaviours?
But surely Foucault isn't denying that we like, or prefer, some things or people. So in what way is post-seuality relevant?
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user6917
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Would Foucault advocate democracy?
It seems like democracy is a form of government where there is a balance of power between citizens and the government. Would Foucault be in support of this type of government?
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What kind of Hobbesian power is bio-power?
In Hobbes political theory sovereignty is undivided; that is certain powers are necessary to sustain sovereignty, and anything less will undermine it; for Hobbes these are the powers of:
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What were Michel Foucault's most important ideas?
Back when I was studying at university I met the occasional person who spoke about, and seemed to like, Foucault. For a while I had a passing interest in him, and even bought a reader, but found his ...
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Enlightenment as the beginning of observation, examination and control
By studying Foucault, one would certainly realize that "Enlightenment" played a major role in creating discourses that led to disciplines and that the multiplicity of the latter contributed to more ...
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