File spoon-archives/foucault.archive/foucault_2001/foucault.0102, message 11


From: "David McInerney" <davidmci67-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Bio-Power and Ethics
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 18:20:48 +1030


In response to Bryan's original message to this list, I guess this is a
little bit late now, but perhaps the best way to understand Foucault's
arguments on bio-power is to carefully read his works on this topic, taking
care not to subject them to some sort of hermeneutic that might foist one's
own preconceptions upon the text.  Otherwise, one risks burying Foucault's
texts under a mountain of commentary, as someone once said about another
text (was it Spinoza about the Bible, someone else about Spinoza's reading
of the Bible??? -- I read something on this some time ago in Montag's book
on Spinoza) ...
If you need a secondary source Mitchell Dean's book "Critical and Effective
Histories" might enable you to cut some corners but I really don't think
list discussion can substitute for a careful reading of Foucault's text.
You might end up chasing after shadows and that might not help you formulate
a "Foucaultian critique" for your debate.  In any case it seems doubtful
that Foucault could provide a "critique of privacy" -- maybe an analysis of
the various discourses on privacy, but it seems there is little in
Foucault's work that might constitute a contribution to, rather than an
analysis of, normative political theory.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan C" <kirk728-AT-hotmail.com>
To: <foucault-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 7:10 PM
Subject: Bio-Power and Ethics


> I am a High school debater who is running a Foucauldian critique for
> this year's topic of privacy.  I also generally find Foucault's work
> intriguing personally.  I have read a primer on Foucault as well
> as some stuff on the internet, but I am still confused on a few key
> concepts.
>
> First, what exactly is Bio-Power and where can I read about it.  I
> think I have gathered that it is generally the medical categorization
> of life or perhaps just valuing life.  Furthermore we have evidence
> from a man named Bernauer talking about how Bio-Power creates the
> possibility for the annihilation of the human race.  I would like to
> know why that is.
>
> Second, what are Foucault's ethics and where did he formulate his thesis
> on them?  I know that he generally thought that we should examine
> ourselves and create ourselves like a work of art.  But what exactly,
> if anything, is the art we are trying to make ourselves into?  Is it an
> objective standard, a relativistic standard based on individual nature,
> or perhaps a mixture of the two?
>
> Anyone who answers this message is my personal savior.  We have a
> tournament coming up in two weeks and if we don't know what we are
> talking about we will be in trouble.
> _________________________________________________________________
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>

   

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