Foucault

Question 1

Criticisms of Foucault

Answer 1

• minimization of the law as it relates to power
• criticized for lack of rigour on genealogical approach
• writing is obscure and overly complex
• critique of universal and environmental values leads to moral relativism and pessimism.
• the idea that truth is contingent on knowledge-power relations is self defeating
• his refusal to provide a normative framework impedes the impetus for resistance.

Question 2

Case Study: Chomsky-Foucault Debate

Answer 2

Chomsky:

• human nature is based on notions of justice and morality
• we should develop a future society based on the needs of human nature and real justice

Foucault

• human nature and justice are social constructs that are always products of power
• we should focus on exposing power relations before suggesting how to organize a future society.

Question 3

Characteristics of Foucault

Answer 3

• focuses on becoming (social construct) rather than being (essence)
• doesnt give law a privilege position in his analysis
• law refers to instruments and techniques deployed, which have wider collective effects
• justice is in a constant state of becoming and has no universal essence.

Question 4

Nietzschean Genealogical Approach

Answer 4

• nietzsche’s “god is dead” statement institutes a world view without universal foundations for authority
• a method of historical analysis that shows how knowledge concepts have developed over time and space in a much more complex, diverse and contested way
• exposes the role of power and its productive connection with knowledge

Question 5

What is power knowledge?

Answer 5

How subjects interact to create social forms, law and given truths about social reality.

Question 6

What is a regime of truth?

Answer 6

politics that differentiate between true and false statements, and authorize which techniques and procedures and people may enunciate the truth.

Question 7

What is the goal of Foucault’s genealogical form of critical analysis?

Answer 7

Tries to separate out historical regimes of truth and discover the contingency that has made us what we are, do and think

Question 8

How does Foucault view power?

Answer 8

As a tactic which shapes and manipulates relations between historically structured action of a subject.

Question 9

Foucault: power analytic

Answer 9

• How power is exercised in a given context
• always connected to resistance and vice versa
• should not be seen solely in terms of the sovereign state.

Question 10

Sovereign Power

Answer 10

punitive and extreme, punishes the body

Question 11

Disciplinary Power

Answer 11

• shapes individual behaviour, through control and surveillance

Question 12

Biopolitical Power

Answer 12

• indirect regulation, self government.