Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 15:57:40 -0500 (EST)
From: "M.A. King" <kingma-AT-mcmail.CIS.McMaster.CA>
Subject: Re: Comments?




On Sat, 14 Feb 1998, James Parr wrote:

> bodily, because that would be too crude.  Real control is exercised invisibly
> over our souls (I think he uses this word without irony, but I may be wrong).

I think he somewhere (possibly somewhere in D&P itself) claims that the
subject of D&P is "the invention of the modern soul".  I suppose you could
say that his use of the word "soul" in D&P is as ironic or unironic as his
use of "man" in The Order of Things.... Anyway, it's important to realize
that power isn't just exercised *over* this soul; the soul (our soul,
which is not quite the same thing as the soul of the medieval theologians,
for instance) is a *product* of the exercise.

There is, at any rate, a tinge of irony in saying that panoptical power
operates "invisibly", no? :)

Matthew

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Matthew A. King  ----  Department of Philosophy  ----  McMaster University