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Foucault has a lot of important insights. My problem with him is he seems to have no real idea of how things could ever be better, and hence no way to choose be

Foucault has a lot of important insights. My problem with him is he seems to have no real idea of how things could ever be better, and hence no way to choose between the various available overall options. Society is just oppressive power, and the only course of action seems to just be endless vigilance and resistance.

gumby 10y ago
Consider him to be one of the "butterfly collectors" of this kind of social power analysis. Not everyone has to be able to develop a field; for that to happen someone has to recognize and try to catalogue it. If you're not familiar with the metaphor, it refers to one of the development phases of a scientific discipline: before there was a theory of physics, many people described and classified various phenomena. The term comes from biology; even before Linneus, people described and collected all sorts of species; then Linneus provided a taxonomy to fit them into; and now we have a theory of genetics.
throwaway91111 10y ago
How is that worse than offering a way forward that isn't based on solid reasoning? The world isn't driven by people like Foucault who strive for a complete understanding; it's driven by people who use reductive worldviews to find the "clear" way forward. No, I much more trust and find value in world views that don't offer a clear prescription. Skeptics are the best critics of reality.
stewbrew 10y ago
I think the problem here (and many critics) is that you read Foucault without taking into account the context of his work. Foucault was an active/socially commited philosopher who actively tried to do something to make things better. And his work is part of that.
thedailymail 10y ago
Toward the end of his life, Foucault delivered a series of lectures in which he described the emergence of free-market/ neoliberal societies [1]. Many of his admirers are surprised when they learn that he seemed pretty enthusiastic about the prospects [2] (although he died too early to observe the power consequences of a highly marketized society, so we don't know what he would think today). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Biopolitics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Biopolitics [2] http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9781509501762 http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9781509501762

gumby 10y ago

Consider him to be one of the "butterfly collectors" of this kind of social power analysis. Not everyone has to be able to develop a field; for that to happen someone has to recognize and try to catalogue it. If you're not familiar with the metaphor, it refers to one of the development phases of a scientific discipline: before there was a theory of physics, many people described and classified various phenomena. The term comes from biology; even before Linneus, people described and collected all sorts of species; then Linneus provided a taxonomy to fit them into; and now we have a theory of genetics.

throwaway91111 10y ago

How is that worse than offering a way forward that isn't based on solid reasoning? The world isn't driven by people like Foucault who strive for a complete understanding; it's driven by people who use reductive worldviews to find the "clear" way forward. No, I much more trust and find value in world views that don't offer a clear prescription. Skeptics are the best critics of reality.

stewbrew 10y ago

I think the problem here (and many critics) is that you read Foucault without taking into account the context of his work. Foucault was an active/socially commited philosopher who actively tried to do something to make things better. And his work is part of that.

thedailymail 10y ago

Toward the end of his life, Foucault delivered a series of lectures in which he described the emergence of free-market/ neoliberal societies [1]. Many of his admirers are surprised when they learn that he seemed pretty enthusiastic about the prospects [2] (although he died too early to observe the power consequences of a highly marketized society, so we don't know what he would think today). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Biopolitics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Biopolitics [2] http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9781509501762 http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9781509501762