scholarly journals Foucault Among the Stoics: Oikeiosis and Counter-Conduct

2016 ◽  
pp. 22-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Depew
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
The Self ◽  
Care Of The Self ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
The Government ◽  
Stoic Philosophy

This paper explores the relation of Foucault’s notion of counter-conduct to the Stoic notion of oikeiosis. Initially, oikeisosis is set against Platonic homoiosis, specifically as discussed in the Alcibiades, which provides what Foucault calls the “Platonic model” of conduct. The paper examines what Foucault means by “care of the self” and points to its difference from the Delphic maxim “know yourself” that centered on a principle of homoiosis, or ethical transcendence. Noting how the problematic of care of the self leads to what Foucault calls “the government of conduct,” the paper considers the possibility of “counter-conduct.” Given that Foucault has argued that the autonomy of conduct has been rendered invisible through its “juridification,” this paper proceeds with a genealogy of the codification of morals in natural law theory. This culminates with the sixteenth century return to Stoicism in the person of Grotius. Showing that a certain conception of counter-conduct present in Gerson is transformed in natural law theory into a juridical grounding of the government of conduct, this paper draws out the immanent relation of conduct and counter-conduct in the notion of appropriation. Arguing that Grotius has fundamentally misunderstood the concept of oikeiosis, which he takes from Cicero and which subtends his theory of appropriation, this paper suggests that a return to the early Stoic formulation of oikeiosis allows for a rethinking of the problem of the government of conduct. A certain moralization of action, irreducible to codification that is present in early Stoic thought provides a model of “counter-conduct.” Ultimately, “care of the self,” as it is given in Stoic philosophy, relates the subject of action to the principle of ethical immanence that grounds Foucault’s critique of the subject.

scholarly journals Anarcheology and the Emergence of the Alethurgic Subject in Foucault’s On the Government of the Living

2020 ◽  
pp. 53-70
Author(s):  
Daniele Lorenzini
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
History Of Sexuality ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Care Of The Self ◽  
Critical Attitude ◽  
Modern Subject ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government

On the Government of the Living plays a pivotal role in the evolution of Foucault’s thought because it constitutes a “laboratory” in which he forges the methodological and conceptual tools—such as the notions of anarcheology and alethurgy (or, better, what I call here the “alethurgic subject”)—necessary to carry on his study of governmentality independently from his History of Sexuality project. In this paper, I argue that Foucault’s projects of an anarcheology of the government of human beings through the manifestation of truth in the form of subjectivity and of a genealogy of the subject of desire, albeit essentially linked to one another, are conceptually autonomous. These projects are both part of a genealogy of the modern subject but should be treated independently insofar as it is the former, elaborated in On the Government of the Living, that provides us with the key to understanding Foucault’s interest in the care of the self and parrhesia as an integral part of his analyses of governmentality and the critical attitude from the late 1970s.

scholarly journals Foucault e a Insurreição Iraniana como Acontecimento: O Si e os Outros, Do assujeitamento à subjetivação/Foucault and the Iranian Insurrection as Event: The self and others, from subjection to subjectivation

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (14) ◽  
pp. 306
Author(s):  
Gabriela Menezes Jaquet
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
The Self ◽  
Care Of The Self ◽  
French Philosophy ◽  
Collège De France ◽  
Main Target ◽  
Pastoral Power ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Spirituality ◽  
The Government

O objetivo deste artigo é, de forma geral, discutir a noção de acontecimento enquanto uma das principais categorias para a leitura da obra de Michel Foucault, o que nos permite, a partir de uma determinada operacionalização, compreender todo seu projeto como uma acontecimentalização da história. A fim de especificar este processo, estabelecemos o diagnóstico foucaultiano da Insurreição Iraniana como mote de nossa verificação do acontecimento, em que atentaremos para dois aspectos que convergem no nexo principal do événement: o “poder pastoral” e a “espiritualidade política” conduzindo às novas proposições teóricas sobre a formação do sujeito. Será, assim, a partir do grande eixo da subjetivação que desenvolveremos nossa hipótese de leitura, referente à economia da obra foucaultiana, no que diz respeito ao acento espiritual do poder pastoral e o episódio iraniano como estando já inseridos em um movimento que deveria tentar pensar, continuamente, um sujeito outro. Desta forma, tais temáticas, abarcando a questão de um governo dos outros, carregarão igualmente a necessidade conceitual do governo de si, desenvolvida por Foucault através do “cuidado de si” durante a década de 1980. Para percorrermos este caminho, de uma acontecimentalização do levante no Irã, abordaremos primeiramente o poder pastoral e as contra-condutas no contexto do curso proferido no Collège de France em 1978, Sécurité, territoire, population. Em seguida enfocaremos a noção de “espiritualidade política”, utilizada em sua análise sobre o Irã, a partir de um cruzamento conceitual advindo de estudo pontual de L’Herméneutique du sujet, curso de 1982, a fim de poder explicitar, ao final, como a própria metodologia de uma filosofia do acontecimento procura atingir seu principal alvo, o sujeito, ao pensá-lo enquanto processo, através de um questionamento singular: “como se tornar sujeito sem ser assujeitado?”. Abstract: The aim of this essay is to discuss the notion of event as one of the main categories for reading the work of Michel Foucault. In terms of the way it operates, the event allows us to understand Foucault’s entire project as an eventalization of history. In order to specify this process, we establish Foucault’s diagnosis of the Iranian Insurrection as a verification of the event, in which we attend to two aspects that converge in the main nexus of événement: “pastoral power” and “political spirituality”. Both of these lead to new theoretical propositions on the formation of subject. It is thus from the large axis of subjectivation that we develop our reading hypothesis. With reference to the economy of Foucault’s work, the spiritual tone of pastoral power and the Iranian episode are already inserted in a movement that should attempt to think continuously of an other subject. Such themes, by dealing with the question of a government of others, also bear the conceptual need of the government of self, developed by Foucault through the “care of the self” during the 1980s. To cover the path of an eventalization of the Iranian uprising, we first consider pastoral power and counter-conducts in the framework of the course given at the Collège de France in 1978: Security, Territory, Population. Then we focus on the notion of “political spirituality”, using Foucault’s analysis of Iran, from the conceptual crossing that emerges from the study of the Hermeneutic of the subject course given in 1982. Finally, we seek to explicate how the specific methodology of a philosophy of event aims to reach its main target, the subject, by thinking it as a process by means of a singular question: “how to become a subject without being subjected?”. Keywords: Event; Michel Foucault; Pastoral power; Subjectivation; Contemporary French Philosophy

scholarly journals 'Critique' as Technology of the Self

2005 ◽  
pp. 97-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
The Self ◽  
Pure Reason ◽  
Critique Of Pure Reason ◽  
Care Of The Self ◽  
The Status ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
The Subject

This inquiry is situated at the intersection of two enigmas. The first is the enigma of the status of Kant's practice of critique, which has been the subject of heated debate since shortly after the publication of the first edition of The Critique of Pure Reason. The second enigma is that of Foucault's apparent later 'turn' to Kant, and the label of 'critique', to describe his own theoretical practice. I argue that Kant's practice of 'critique' should be read, after Foucault, as a distinctly modern practice in the care of the self, governed by Kant's famous rubric of the 'primacy of practical reason'. In this way, too, Foucault's later interest in Kant - one which in fact takes up a line present in his work from his complementary thesis on Kant's Anthropology - is cast into distinct relief. Against Habermas and others, I propose that this interest does not represent any 'break' or 'turn' in Foucault's work. In line with Foucault's repeated denials that he was interested after 1976 in a 'return to the ancients', I argue that Foucault's writings on critique represent instead both a deepening theoretical self-consciousness, and part of his project to forge an ethics adequate to the historical present.

2. Natural law and morality

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-73
Author(s):  
Raymond Wacks
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Moral Realism ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
Law And Morality ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the relationship between the ancient classical theory of natural law and its application to contemporary moral questions. It considers the role of natural law in political philosophy, the decline of the theory of natural law, and its revival in the twentieth century. The principal focus is on John Finnis’s natural law theory based largely on the works of St Thomas Aquinas. The chapter posits a distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ natural law, examines the notion of moral realism, and examines the tension between law and morality; and the subject of the moral dilemmas facing judges in unjust societies.

“A Trespass against the Whole Species”: Universal Crime and Sovereign Founding in John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-585
Author(s):  
Sinja Graf
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Creation

This essay theorizes how the enforcement of universal norms contributes to the solidification of sovereign rule. It does so by analyzing John Locke’s argument for the founding of the commonwealth as it emerges from his notion of universal crime in the Second Treatise of Government. Previous studies of punishment in the state of nature have not accounted for Locke’s notion of universal crime which pivots on the role of mankind as the subject of natural law. I argue that the dilemmas specific to enforcing the natural law against “trespasses against the whole species” drive the founding of sovereign government. Reconstructing Locke’s argument on private property in light of universal criminality, the essay shows how the introduction of money in the state of nature destabilizes the normative relationship between the self and humanity. Accordingly, the failures of enforcing the natural law require the partitioning of mankind into separate peoples under distinct sovereign governments. This analysis theorizes the creation of sovereign rule as part of the political productivity of Locke’s notion of universal crime and reflects on an explicitly political, rather than normative, theory of “humanity.”

scholarly journals A CONSTITUIÇÃO DO SUJEITO EM MICHEL FOUCAULT A PARTIR DA HISTÓRIA DA SEXUALIDADE

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 158
Author(s):  
Ketlin Kroetz ◽  
José Luis Schifino Ferraro
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
The Self ◽  
History Of Sexuality ◽  
Care Of The Self ◽  
Single Reading ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

RESUMOEste ensaio objetiva discutir o modo como Michel Foucault abordou a constituição do sujeito a partir de a História da Sexualidade em seus volumes (I) A vontade de saber, (II) O uso dos prazeres e (III) O cuidado de si. O trabalho utiliza aportes teóricos de autores que trabalham “com” o filósofo francês em torno dos processos de subjetivação. Sem querer fechar conclusões e/ou propor uma leitura unívoca sobre o tema, o texto que segue conduz o debate em torno da invenção do sujeito e dos distintos modos de constituir-se/devir-a-ser sujeito da experiência no interior dos estudos foucaultianos e seu entrecruzamento com a Educação.Palavras-chave: Constituição do sujeito. História da sexualidade. Michel Foucault.ABSTRACTThis essay aims to discuss how Michel Foucault approached the theme of the subject constitution from the History of Sexuality in its volumes (I) An Introduction, (II) the use of pleasure and (III) The care of the self. The work use a series of theoretical contributions from authors who works “with” the French philosopher around the subjectivation processes. Without any pretention of closing conclusions and/or propose a single reading about the theme, the following text lead us to the debate around the invention of the subject and the different ways to constitutes/becomes the subject of the experience in the field of the Foucauldian studies and its intersection with Education.Keywords: Subject constitution. History of sexuality. Michel Foucault.

scholarly journals Mirarse a uno mismo: Acerca de la afectación como engranaje clave de las políticas de reforma curricular

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Carla Andrea Villagran
Keyword(s):  
School Reform ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
Curriculum Policies ◽  
Better Than

This article presents the results of a research project that seeks to describe and analyze the curricular policies of reform in the daily life of schools, paying particular attention here to the processes of regulation and self-regulation that they produce and impose on their subjects. From the Foucauldian notion of governmentality we understand that curriculum policies and regulations, technologies, and behaviors produce performative effects (Ball, 2002, 2012), which affect not only the life of the institutions but also of the subject (Ahmed, 2004, Berlant, 2011). Thus, the question that orientates this article is woven around the articulation of the government of others and self-government (Foucault, 1988, 2009) as a key mode of school reform technologies and the modes of social affectation. The processes of reform cross subjects through performative technologies (Ball, 2002) and constitute a part of what Rose (2012) called the ethopolytic, that is, these processes act at the level of feelings and beliefs, and put the self in check. As a hypothesis, it is argued that judgment, self-reflection and self-responsibility are attached to questions that teachers ask themselves in the call to become better than they are. 

scholarly journals PERSPEKTIF FILOSOFIS KONSEP KEKUASAAN DISKRESI PEMERINTAH

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Krishna Djaya Darumurti
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Legal Positivism ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Philosophical Issue ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
The Government ◽  
Higher Law ◽  
Principle Of Legality ◽  
Better Than

AbstrakArtikel ini menganalisis isu filosofis tentang konsep kekuasaan diskresi pemerintah. Artikel ini berargumen bahwa teori hukum alam lebih memadai dibandingkan teori positivism yuridis dalam menjustifikasi dasar filosofis kekuasaan diskresi pemerintah. Dengan kekuasaan diskresi yang dimiliki, pemerintah adakalanya dapat bertindak menyimpangi undang-undang atau asas legalitas. Oleh karena itu, supaya terlegitimasi, tindakan demikian memerlukan justifikasi filosofis yang memadai. Teori hukum alam menjustifikasi kekuasaan diskresi pemerintah dengan mengajukan klaim bahwa diskresi adalah tuntutan hukum yang lebih tinggi dari hukum positif.AbstractThis article analyses the philosophical issue of the concept of discretionary power of the government. It is argued that natural law theory is better than legal positivism theory to justify the philosophical underpinning of the discretionary power of government. By its discretionary power, the government sometimes can take an action contrary to laws or legislation or principle of legality. To be legitimate, this action needs sufficient philosophical justification. Natural law theory justifies discretionary power of government by claiming that discretion is the demand of the higher law that is higher than the positive law.

scholarly journals Det utilstrækkelige subjekt – En foucauldiansk analyse af selvhjælpslitterær selvstyring

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-33
Author(s):  
Erik Mygind du Plessis
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
The Self ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
Foucauldian Analysis

Denne artikel undersøger, hvordan bestemte personlighedstræk søges problematiseret og kultiveret i moderne selvhjælpslitteratur. Undersøgelsen, som har et særligt fokus på autonomi, trækker teoretisk på Michel Foucaults begreb problematisering samt Foucaults tanker om governmentality og selvstyring. Artiklen kombinerer disse analytiske perspektiver i et forsøg på at vise, hvordan det autonome subjekt forsøges kultiveret på trods af det paradoks der indtræder, når kultiveringen sker gennem subjektets underkasten sig litteraturens anvisninger. Det konkluderes i artiklen, at problemer i selvhjælpslitteraturen generelt formuleres som forskellige typer mangler, der som løsning indebærer konstant udvikling hen mod et mål om selvrealisering, som aldrig helt kan opnås. Subjektet subjektiveres dermed som et ufærdigt projekt, der aldrig er helt godt nok, og som altid har brug for forbedring. Dette gælder også for autonomi som problem, og i artiklens anden halvdel vises det, hvordan den allestedsnærværende ufuldendthed ved subjektet manifesterer sig i paradokset, hvor subjektet bør være selvstændigt, autonomt og handle ud fra sin egne overbevisninger, men samtidig udleder denne evne til at handle autonomt fra de samme autoriteter, som det bør være autonomt fra. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Erik Mygind du Plessis: The Inadequate Subject: Self-Help Literature and the Government of the Self – a Foucauldian Analysis This article investigates how current self-help literature seeks to problematize and cultivate certain personality traits. The study emphasizes individual autonomy, and is based on an analytical framework employing Michel Foucault’s concept of problematization and his insights into power and governmentality – particularly those concerned with the various ways in which subjects govern themselves. The article combines these two analytical perspectives in an attempt to show how the objective of creating autonomous subjects is carried out in this literature, despite the paradoxical nature of doing so through the readers’ subjection to self-help instructions. The analysis concludes that the problems taken up in the self-help literature are generally formulated in terms of various forms of incompleteness. This entails a constant and never ending development towards, as a final objective, a self-realization, which can never quite be achieved. Thus the subject is construed as an unfinished project that is never quite good enough, always requiring improvement. The second part of the article analyses how this ubiquitous incompleteness of the subject manifests itself through the paradox of creating autonomy through subjection. Key words: Foucault, problematization, self-help, autonomy.

scholarly journals KANT’S CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE AND AQUINAS’ NATURAL LAW THEORY: A CRITICAL AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 01-13
Author(s):  
Ejeh Paulinus C.
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Categorical Imperative ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Ethical Philosophy ◽  
Critical Comparison ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Natural Law Theory

This paper titled: “Kant’s Categorical Imperative and Aquinas’ Natural Law Theory: A Critical and Comparative Analysis”, is an attempt towards a better understanding of the compatibility or otherwise, that may exist between the works of the two great minds in the history of philosophy-Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant. The paper aims at a critical comparison of the basic premises of Kant’s and Aquinas’s ethical philosophy, intending to find similarities and dissimilarities as well as compatibility or incompatibility between them. This paper adopts a conceptual clarification of our discourse and engages in an analytic, critical exposition, and appraisal of the subject matters.

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