From: "John S. Ransom" <dickinson-AT-alinet.it>
Subject: Re: theory and critique
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 20:38:42 +0100


Ben Day writes,

----- Original Message -----
From: Ben B. Day <bday-AT-cs.umb.edu>
To: <foucault-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 1999 3:54 AM
Subject: RE: theory and critique


> John,
>
> I haven't read "What is critique?" (although, certainly I will now),
> but your description and quotation sound like Foucalt is heavily
> under the influence of the Frankfurt School here; Marcuse in particular
> emphasized the "power of negative thinking." His basic position here
> springs from possessing a blueprint of the /current/ society, and
> an understanding of its injustice. In /One-Dimensional Man/, he writes:
>
> > ... in the most advanced areas of this civilization, the social
> > controls have been introjected to the point where even individual
> > protest is affected at its roots. The intellectual and emotional
> > refusal "to go along" appears neurotic and impotent. This is the
> > socio-psychological aspect of the political event that marks the
> > contemporary period: the passing of the historical forces which,
> > at the preceding stage of industrial society, seemed to present
> > the possibility of new forms of existence...
> > ... In this process, the "inner" dimension of the mind in which
> > opposition to the status quo can take root is whittled down. The
> > loss of this dimension, in which the power of negative thinking--
> > the critical power of Reason--is at home, is the ideological
> > counterpart to the very material process in which advanced
> > industrial society silences and reconciles the opposition.
>
> The resistance to the prerequisite of a blueprint for the future,
> or a "blueprint for a just society," comes from Marx's critique of
> the Utopian socialists. This is consistent with the long strain of
> historicist philosophy running from Hegel to present day, and
> certainly through Foucalt. Forward-looking political prescriptions
> are based on an analysis of the present, and its unstable elements,
> as opposed to constructing an abstract theory of an ideal society
> (More's /Utopia/ being the seminal text in this tradition, but
> popular amongst late 18th and early 19th century socialists, a la
> Fourier and Saint-Simon.)
>
> To use Marcuse's words again (but more briefly!), "slaves must be
> /free for/ their liberation before they can become free." In other
> words, to steal from Nietzsche, "If a temple is to be erected a
> /temple must be destroyed/: that is the law--let anyone who can
> show me a case in which it is not fulfilled!" A negation must
> precede a creation, and especially when the supressive "temple"
> we wish to negate embodies the very language we speak with,
> it must necessarily be broken down before it can be "though around."
>
> I'm uncertain if there was any link between Marcuse and Foucalt, but
> I don't imagine that they could have avoided each other. Marcuse
> doesn't seem to have faired very well over the years--his influence
> today seems minimal--but he was a seminal figure during the sixties
> and early seventies, and was probably the name most intimately linked
> with the student movement at the time.
>
> ----Ben

Well, I love Marcuse. In fact I think he's more relevant now than ever. I
assign _One-Dimensional Man_ all the time. Students like it a lot. Talk
about a clear thesis!

Where I think Foucault parts company with Marcuse and the Frankfurt School
as a whole is their strong tendency to paint a picture of a totally
administered world. That is, in the name of effective criticism, they simply
exaggerate the forces of domination.

There's a book out that I haven't had a chance to read yet but which when I
do I'll perhaps comment on it here. It's called "The Actuality of Adorno"
and it has to do with the relation between Adorno and postmodernism.

-- John

-- John

>