File spoon-archives/foucault.archive/foucault_1998/foucault.9807, message 196


Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 01:32:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: "M.A. King" <kingma-AT-mcmail.CIS.McMaster.CA>
Subject: Foucault's discipline




On Wed, 29 Jul 1998, Darren wrote:

> Foucault would argue that language and specialised languages position
> people in various ways. It is a site of power. So, 'intellectual' texts are
> a site of power which, through their specialised language, discipline the
> reader in a particular position.
> How would Foucault respond to the suggestion that his own writing ... which
> is specialised ... does the same thing?

I have a feeling you're assuming that discipline per se is a bad thing
(which, for Foucault, despite egregious (that's the word of the day;)
interpretations like Rorty's, is not the case), and that you think you've
caught Foucault in a self-referential catch-22.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Anyway,
I'm sure he would respond that it does, of course.

Matthew

----Matthew A. King------Department of Philosophy------McMaster University----
     "The border is often narrow between a permanent temptation to commit
     suicide and the birth of a certain form of political consciousness."
-----------------------------(Michel Foucault)--------------------------------



   

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