Title: Michel Foucault
1Michel Foucault
- French Philosopher and Historian
- 1926-1984
2Biography
- Born Paul-Michel Foucault in Poitiers, France on
October 15, 1926 - Father was a surgeon who hoped Michel would
follow in his footsteps - Known for his critical studies of various social
institutions, including medicine, education,
psychiatry and his work on the history of
sexuality - Influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant
and Georges Dumézil - Experimented with the drug LSD in 1975,
considered it the best experience of his life
3Education and Career
- attended École Normale Supérieure earned degrees
in both psychology and philosophy - Was a member of the French Communist Party from
1950-1953 later it was said he never was an
active participant - Taught psychology at the University of Lille from
1953-1954 - 1954-1958 - served as a cultural delegate to the
University of Uppsala in Sweden - Also held teaching posts at Warsaw University,
the University of Hamburg and the University of
Tunis throughout the late 1950s and 60s - Also earned his doctorate in philosophy
- 1970- elected to France's most prestigious
academic body, the Collège de France as Professor
of the History of Systems of Thought - First visited the U.S. in 1970- lectured at the
University of Buffalo and UC-Berkeley
4The Imitation of Life
- Foucaults writings on sexuality are thought to
have been influenced by his homosexuality - In the 1970s and 80s, Foucault participated in
anonymous lifestyle in San Francisco. It is
suspected during this time, he contracted HIV - Died of an AIDS-related illness on June 16, 1984
the 1st high profile French personality to be
reported as an AIDS victim - Originally slated to be a six-volume project, his
work The History of Sexuality was never fully
published due to restrictions within his estate.
5The History of Sexuality
6Right to Life
- Right to Life goes hand in hand with Right to
Die - Whoever controls right by deduction has means to
take it away
7Power of Life and Death
- Whoever controls the wealth, taxes, products,
good, services, labor and blood controls life and
death in a society - Examples kings, lords, land owners, slave
owners- any sovereign - Control food, war and peace and labor- can let
live or die at will
8Power Today
- In a rational society, power usually does not
come from control over life and death - Ex death penalty
- Less common
- Seen as a protection for the rest of society
- Importance of quality of life
- New power comes from Bio-Power
9Power Today
- What are some examples of modern societies that
have been controlled by direct power over life
and death?
10Bio-Power
- Bio-power is a technology of power
- Uses different techniques to allow for control of
the entire population
11Bio-Power
- Anatomo-politics of the human body
- Idea of the body as a machine- it is productive,
useful, etc - Appears in the military, education ,work to make
the population more disciplined
12Bio-Power
- Regulatory controls a bio-politics of the
population - Body is part of the mechanics of life-
propagation, births and deaths, health, life
expectancy and longevity - Used in demography, wealth analysis, etc to
control population statistically
13Bio-Power
- Bio-power is responsible for
- Capitalism
- Controlled input of people into labor and
adjustments to the population - The Judicial System
- Threat for disobedience is ultimately death
- But not death by a sovereign, death becomes a
norm upheld by society as punishment - Power held within society is more stable and
accepted
14Bio-Power and Sexuality
- The right to life, to ones body, to health,
to happiness, to the satisfaction of needs, and
beyond all the oppressions or alienations, the
right to rediscover what one is and all that
one can be, this right- which the classical
juridical system was utterly incapable of
comprehending- was the political response to all
these new procedures of power which did not
derive, either , from the traditional right of
sovereignty. The History of Sexuality
15Bio-Power and Sexuality
- Link between control of the body and power makes
sexuality a political issue in 2 ways - Discipline of the body
- Controlling and distributing people and their
energy - Regulation of population
- Affects medical and psychological fields, as well
as public policy
16Politics of Sex
- Foucault highlights 4 lines of attack that the
politics of sex play upon - The sexualization of children
- The hysterization of women
- The solidity of the family institution
- The safeguarding of society
17Politics of sex
- Do you agree with Foucaults assessment that our
society is based on bio-power? - Based on Foucaults writing, what issues does our
society currently face that may be seen as
threats to the current nation state based on
bio-power?
18Truth and Power
19Truth and Power
- An interview in which Foucault speaks on power,
truth, phenomenology, ideology, as well as
touches on societys repression of sexuality - Is there a definition of power or truth? Although
Foucault speaks extensively on the subject
matter, he does not give a definition of what
power is. - Speaks on the political problem
20Power
- Power is exercised concretely and in detail (in
regards to specificity, techniques and tactics) - Power is visible
- Is power simply a means of repression? According
to Foucault, the answer is no. What makes power
acceptable is that is produces goods, induces
pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse. - Power should be viewed as a productive network
versus a negative instance which represses
21Truth
- The important thing here, I believe, is that
truth isnt outside power, or lacking in power
contrary to a myth whose history and functions
would repay further study, truth isnt the reward
of free spirits, the children of protracted
solitude, nor the privilege of those who have
succeeded in liberating themselves. Truth is a
thing of this world it is produced only by
virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it
induces regular effects of power.
22Truth continued
- Is said to have been influenced by Nietzsches
statement that knowledge functions as an
instrument of power - Truth is subject to economic and political
incitement - Is an object of diffusion and consumption
- Is transmittable through the control of the
dominant political and economical instutitions
(e.g. academic institutions, military, media,
writing) - The three-fold specificity of the intellectual
- a) class position
- b) conditions of his life and work
- c) the specificity of the politics of truth in
our societies - The political problem is not changing the minds
of peoples thinking, but the production of truth
on political, economic and institutionalized
levels - Truth is power (but would power be considered as
truth?)
23Foucault Discussion Questions
- Foucault states that sexuality is far more of a
positive product of power than power was ever
repression of sexuality. What do you think is
meant by that? - Is truth socially constructed? If so, what would
contribute to constructing truth in modern
society?
24Jean Baudrillard
- July 29, 1929 March 6, 2007
25Jean Baudrillard
- Born in Reims, France on July 29, 1929 to a
peasant family. - He studied German at Sorbonne University in
Paris. - He taught German in France from 1958 to 1966.
- During that time, he worked as a translator and
critic and studied sociology and philosophy. - He completed his doctoral thesis, Thesis of the
Third Cycle The System of Objects, in 1966. - From 1966 to 1972 he was a Professor of
Sociology.
26Jean Baudrillard
- He finished his habilitation, The Other, by
oneself, in 1972. - He was a Sociology Professor at the University of
Paris-X Nanterre. - From 1986 to 1990, he was the Scientific Director
at IRIS (Institut de Recherche et d'Information
Socio-Économique) at the University of Paris-IX
Dauphine. - He was the Satrap at the University of
Pataphysics until he died. - He died in Paris on March 6, 2007 because of
illness at age 77.
27Jean BaudrillardMain Themes
- He is frequently associated with
post-structuralism. - He often made arguments based on the idea that
systems of meaning could only be understood in
terms of their interrelation. - The line between reality and simulation is false.
28Jean BaudrillardMain Themes
- All of his theories were based on the same basic
principle that meaning is interpreted by absence. - Example The word desk means desk not because
of what the word itself says, but because of what
it does not say chair, person, duck, etc.
29Jean BaudrillardMain Themes
- He was critical of Foucalt.
- He developed theories based on the concepts of
hyperreality, seduction, and simulation rather
than knowledge and power.
30Jean BaudrillardInfluences
- Karl Marx
- Nietzsche
- Freud
- Lévi-Strauss
- Marcel Mauss
- Andy Warhol
- Roland Barthes
- Georges Bataille
- Theodor Adorno
31Jean BaudrillardWorks
- Baudrillard Live Selected Interviews (Edited by
Mike Gane) (1993) - The Perfect Crime (1995)
- Paroxysm Interviews with Philippe Petit (1998)
- Impossible Exchange (1999)
- Passwords (2000)
- The Singular Objects of Architecture (2000)
- The Vital Illusion (2000)
- Au royaume des aveugles (2002)
- The Spirit of Terrorism And Requiem for the Twin
Towers (2002) - Fragments (interviews with François L'Yvonnet)
(2003) - The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity Pact
(2005) - The Conspiracy of Art (2005)
- Les exilés du dialogue, Jean Baudrillard and
Enrique Valiente Noailles (2005) - Utopia Deferred Writings for Utopie (1967-1978)
(2006)
- The System of Objects (1968)
- The Consumer Society Myths and Structures (1970)
- For a Critique of the Political Economy of the
Sign (1972) - The Mirror of Production (1973)
- Symbolic Exchange and Death (1976)
- Forget Foucault (1977)
- Seduction (1979)
- Simulacra and Simulation (1983)
- In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities (1982)
- Fatal Strategies (1983)
- America (1986)
- Cool Memories (1987)
- The Ecstasy of Communication (1987)
- The Transparency of Evil (1990)
- The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991)
- The Illusion of the End (1992)
32Jean BaudrillardSimulacra and Simulation
- Published in 1983
- He talks about how society has replaced the real
with signs and symbols and that what we now know
as reality is only a simulation of reality.
33Jean Baudrillard Simulacra and Simulation
- The present age is one of hyperreality where
meaning is eradicated and reality has been
superseded by the signs of its existence. - Example of the desk. (Desk does not mean chair,
person, or duck, etc.)
34Jean BaudrillardIdea of the Precession of
Simulacra (From his 1976 writing Symbolic
Exchange and Death)
- the era of the original
- to the counterfeit
- to the produced, mechanical copy
- to the simulated "third order of simulacra",
whereby the copy has replaced the original.
35Jean BaudrillardExample of the Empire and the map
- He used a fable based on a writing by Jorge Luis
Borges, in which a powerful Empire created a map
so large and detailed that it became the size of
the Empire itself. The map would grow or decay as
the Empire gained or lost territory. When the
Empire collapsed, all that was left was the
rotting map.
36Jean Baudrillard Example of the Empire and the
map
- If the fable were to be revived today, the
territory would be rotting, not the map, because
of the precession of simulacra -the map now
precedes the territory. - In contemporary society the simulated copy has
replaced the original object just like the map
came to precede the geographic territory.
37Jean Baudrillard Example of the Empire and the
map
- According to Baudrillard, we are living in the
map (the simulation of reality) and reality is
decaying because it has been abandoned. - He used this same idea later to argue that the
first Gulf War did not occur. The image of war
preceded real war.
38Jean BaudrillardThe Divine Irreference of Images
- Dissimulate-to feign not to have what one has.
- Simulation- to feign to have what one hasnt. Not
simply to feign. - Someone who feigns an illness can simply go to
bed and pretend he is ill. Someone who simulates
an illness produces in himself some of the
symptoms. - Dissimulating leaves room for the principle of
reality and so the difference is clear and only
masked. - Simulating produces true symptoms and the line
between real and imaginary and true and false
is threatened. The simulator cannot be treated as
ill or not ill because symptoms are now being
produced. - Medicine stops at this point because symptoms are
no longer natural or capable of being treated
because there are no longer objective causes or
true illnesses.
39Jean BaudrillardThe Divine Irreference of Images
- I forbade any simulacrum in the temples because
the divinity that breathes life into nature
cannot be represented. - Iconoclasts- did not see images as distorted
truths, but as perfect simulacra. - They went on a rage to destroy images because
they thought that images of God would erase God
from the consciousness of people and suggest that
there has never been any God that only God has
only ever been his own simulacrum.
40Jean BaudrillardThe Divine Irreference of Images
- A sign could refer to the depth of meaning or
- A sign could exchange for meaning
- Representation-the sign and the real are
equivalent. - Tries to absorb simulation and interpret it as
false representation. - Simulation-the sign is a form of deterioration of
the real. - Envelopes the whole structure of representation
itself as a simulacrum.
41Jean BaudrillardThe Divine Irreference of Images
- Successive phases of the image
- It is the reflection of a basic reality.
- The image is a good appearance- order of
sacrament. - It masks and perverts a basic reality.
- The image is an evil appearance- order of
malefice. - It masks the absence of a basic reality.
- The image plays at being an appearance- order of
sorcery. - It bears no relation to any reality whatever it
is its own pure simulacrum. - The image is no longer an appearance- order of
simulation.
42Jean BaudrillardHyperreal and Imaginary
- Disneyland is a perfect model of all the
entangled orders of simulation. - The imaginary world is what is supposed to make
it successful, but it is made successful through
its miniaturized social representation of real
America.
43Jean BaudrillardHyperreal and Imaginary
- The objective profile of America can be traced
throughout Disneyland, down to the morphology of
the crowd. - Third-order simulation (where the copy replaces
the original) Disneyland exists to cover up the
fact that it is all of real America that is
Disneyland. - Disneyland is presented as imaginary so that we
will think that the rest of the country is real,
when actually the rest of America is no longer
real but made up of simulation and the hyperreal.
- There is no longer a question of false
representation of reality, but of hiding the fact
that the real is no longer real.
44Jean BaudrillardHyperreal and Imaginary
- Disneyland is supposed to make its visitors
believe that adults and the real world are
elsewhere. - It is meant to hide the fact that real
childishness is everywhere. - Los Angeles and the rest of America are only a
network of continuous, unreal circulation.
45Jean BaudrillardDiscussion Questions
- He talks about how what we know as reality now is
actually a simulation of reality. Do you agree or
disagree? Do you think that there is a line
between what is real and what is imaginary? Do
you think that reality can actually be replaced
by the existence of symbols of reality?
46Jean BaudrillardDiscussion Questions
- What is another modern example, besides
Disneyland, that would stand as a model of
simulation?
47Jean BaudrillardDiscussion Questions
- As of this past Friday, gays and lesbians are now
able to participate in fairy tale weddings in
Disneyland whereas before only couples with valid
marriage licenses were allowed to participate in
these ceremonies. How does this coincide with
Baudrillards example of Disneyland as a social
representation of real America? What other
examples can you think of?