Critical Theory: Other Perspectives Michel Foucault

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Critical Theory Other PerspectivesMichel
Foucault

• Its not a matter of emancipating truth from
  every system of power (which would be a chimera,
  for truth is already power), but of detaching the
  power of truth from the forms of hegemony,
  social, economic and cultural within which it
  operates at the present time
• Michel Foucault, Truth and Power, 131

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The relation between truth and power

• Foucault examines the relation between truth and
  power. For him, truth isnt outside power, or
  lacking in power. Truth isnt the reward of
  free spirits, the child of protracted solitude
  Truth is a thing of this world it is produced
  only by virtue of multiple form of constraint
  (131).
• What does Foucault mean by truth?

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The relation between truth and power

• Truth is to be understood as a system of ordered
  procedures for the production, regulation,
  distribution, circulation and operation of
  statements (133).
• Truth is linked with discourses within which
  propositions have truth valuei.e. either
  true/false. Example.
• In addition, Foucault tells us that truth is
  linked in a circular relation with systems of
  power which produce and sustain it, and to
  effects of power which it induces and which
  extend it (133).

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The relation between truth and power

• Foucaults conception of truth is not typical
  of tradition philosophy.
• Traditional theory of knowledge is concerned with
  the necessary and sufficient conditions for
  someone to know a state of affairse.g. there is
  a red car across the street
• The picture gets muddied when we consider much
  more complex examples, such as the claim that
  children between ages 2 and 4 do not have
  abstract principles guiding classification

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The relation between truth and power

• These are the examples that interests Foucault.
  Why?
• Truth isnt outside power, or lacking in power.
  It induces regular effects of power (131).
• He wants to examine the effects of the social
  relations that sustain bodies knowledge on
  individuals.
• E.g. Children ought to segregated from adults

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The relation between truth and power

• Notice though Foucault does not claim that social
  relations determines/produces which statements
  are true. That would be a fallacy.
• Why?
• That would be akin to saying the powerful
  determines the truth.

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Foucault and ideology

• Foucaults conception of truth has implications
  for critical theory with its emphasis on critique
  of ideology. Why?
• Ideologies systematically distort social reality.
  This implies there is true view behind ideology.
• For Foucault, the workings of modern relations of
  power cannot be explained by a ruling class
  generating a set of beliefs that systematically
  distorts social reality. Why is that?

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Foucault and ideology

• Ideology presupposes truth is opposite to power.
  Truth can undermine ideological distortions and
  their power over individuals.
• However since in Foucaults view, truth and power
  are interrelated, the question is not a matter
  of emancipating truth from power (which would
  be a chimera, for truth is already power) but of
  detaching the power of truth from hegemony. The
  political question is not error, illusion it
  is truth itself (133).

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Foucault and ideology

• Furthermore, Foucault sees ideology critique as
  focusing on the beliefs and intentions of
  individuals. The problem for him is not about
  changing peoples consciousness or whats in
  their headsbut the political, economic,
  institutional regime of the production of truth
  (133).
• Is this Marxs view about ideology critique, i.e.
  changing peoples consciousness?

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What is to be done?

• Given his view of power and knowledge, what work
  is to be done by intellectuals?
• Intellectuals are not bearers of universal
  values they are not masters of truth and
  justice (126).
• Rather intellectuals play a specific roleas
  specific intellectualsbecause of their expertise
  they can map out the political, economic and
  institutional regime for the production of truth.
  Their role is to provide tools to aid everyday
  struggles (126).

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Power/knowledge

• Foucault hints at the relation between power and
  knowledge in his comment that since the 17th
  Century, a form of power came into being that
  begins to exercise itself through social
  production and social service. It becomes a
  matter of obtaining productive service from
  individuals Power had to gain access to the
  bodies of individuals, to their acts, attitudes
  and behaviour (125).
• He gives us a more in-depth account in Right of
  Death and Power over life

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• The political question in todays society is life
  itself.
• Whereas the sovereign had the right to take life
  or let live (259), in todays society the
  governing mechanism is to foster life by
  administrating it properly.
• Power has a positive influence on life it
  endeavours to administer, optimize and multiply
  it, subjecting it to precise controls and
  comprehensive regulations (259). Examplepublic
  health

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Biopower

• Foucault calls this form of power biopower. It
  simultaneously aims at two targets the
  anatomo-politics of the human body and a
  bio-politics of the population (262).
• It seeks to obtain knowledge in both fields
  knowledge about the human bodyergonomic studies
  of workersand knowledge about groups of
  individualsmorbidity rates in communities.
• Such knowledge is used to regulate individuals
  and populations

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The norm

• The focus on fostering life has the consequence
  of normalizing society.
• Modern mechanism of government do not wield power
  as a brute force as a sovereign might. Rather, it
  seeks to qualify, measure, apraaise and
  hierarchize, rather than display itself in its
  murderous splendour it effects distributions
  around the norm. A normalizing society is the
  historical outcome of a technology of power
  centred on life (266).

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The power of the norm

• Why are norms effective in governing individuals?
• Think about the word normal. It is a powerful
  word it can affect the behaviour of individuals.
• What do normal and its opposite abnormal
  suggest?
• Normal suggests health abnormal sickness.
  Individuals want to be normal.
• Note though it is individuals who fit the norm
  themselves.

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Foucault and Critical Theory

• Marxist account of ideology attempt to explain
  social reality by reducing it to one ideathe
  domination of the ruling class.
• On Foucaults account, the story is much more
  complicated. It isnt just ownership and control
  of the means of production because the
  normalization of society takes place in
  non-capitalist societies as well