Philosophy Commons^™

Understanding Authoritarianism, Fascism, Far-Right Politics, And Anti-Democratic Processes, Paul Viafranco

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

In this portfolio, Paul Viafranco seeks to understand the rise of Authoritarianism, Fascism, Far-Right Politics, and Anti-Democratic Processes, by delving into Executive Order 9066, Marine Le Pen’s use of medievalism, Donald Trump’s discourse, and the various factors that contribute to the need for seeking asylum or refugee status.

The Gay Science: Power On The Body, Population, And Psyche, Nicola Augustyn

CMC Senior Theses

Michel Foucault is a philosopher of power who left behind a legacy of ideas that continue to inspire scholars today. His conceptualization of power is not limited to the figures of kings, monarchs, or the sovereign state. Rather, he regards power as a productive force that shapes subjectivity, manufactures knowledge, and engenders the truth in a particular historical context. In this thesis, I aim to provide a comprehensive account of Foucault’s analysis of power, starting with his refutation of the “repressive hypothesis” that challenges the predominant view of centralized top-down power. Then, I present Foucault’s proposal for redefining power as …

Civil War And Power: A Theoretical Inquiry, Can Guven

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is a theoretical project that explores the conceptual nexus between civil war and power. It maps out a lineage of thought which posits civil war as a framework for explicating politics, not as a pre-political stage of savagery or a deteriorated condition of the socio-political order. Starting with Michel Foucault’s radical yet short-lived civil war thesis, which situates civil war as the matrix of relations of power, this investigation traverses the work of several theorists and philosophers who have drawn on, or departed from, this line of thought. It critically evaluates Giorgio Agamben’s use of the concept …

Economies Of Security: Foucault And The Genealogy Of Neoliberal Reason, Marshall Scheider

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

Michel Foucault is well-known for his theorizations of institutional power, normativity, and biopolitics. Less well-known is the fact that Foucault developed his analysis of biopolitics in and through his historical investigation of neoliberalism. Today, while critique of neoliberalism has become a commonplace of humanities discourse, and popular resistance to neoliberalization rocks the southern hemisphere, it remains unclear that the historical specificity of neoliberalism is well-understood. In particular, the relation between classical liberalism and neoliberal governance remains murky in popular debate. As Foucault powerfully illustrates, this relation is far from clear-cut, and neoliberalism is not reducible to a simple extension of …

Guantánamo Bodies: Law, Media, And Biopower, Cary Federman, Dave Holmes

Cary Federman

The idea of the Guantánamo detainee as a Muselmann, the lowest order of concentration camp inmates, contains within it important implications for the new understanding of sovereignty in the era of Guantánamo, in an age of exception. The purpose of this article is to explain the status of those who are detained at Guantánamo Bay. Stated broadly, in assessing that status, we will emphasize the connection between the altered meaning of sovereignty that has accompanied the placing of prisoners in an American penal colony in Cuba and the biopolitical status of the prisoners who reside there. More particularly, we …

Courage And Passion In The Reading Of The Later Foucault Of The Cynics, Inmaculada Hoyos Sanchez

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article “Courage and Passion in the Reading of the Later Foucault of the Cynics” Inmaculada Hoyos Sánchez aims to determine what role the passions played in the courage of the truth of ancient Cynicism, for which purpose she analyses the lectures Foucault gave at the Collège de France in 1984. The hypothesis put forward in this article is that what makes Cynic courage different from other manifestations of the courage of the truth, such as Socratic courage, is that it specifically involves the eradication of shame, a passion that is social and public in character, rather than an …

Literature Of The Self In Foucault: Parrhesia And Autobiographical Discourse, Álvaro Luque

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Literature of the Self in Foucault: Parrhesia and Autobiographical Discourse" Álvaro Luque Amo analyzes the framework of Foucault’s study of the technologies of the self. In his study, Michel Foucault analyses the practices of self-writing in the Graeco-Roman period. From this perspective, Foucault approaches the texts of classical authors to interpret what he calls a process of ethopoiesis, or construction of the subject: a subject who tells the truth about himself in the text. Foucault introduces concepts and ideas that are essential to understanding the evolution of autobiography and literature of the self. This article studies …

Jewish Mysticism From Borges To Cirlot: A Transatlantic Approach To The Possibility Of A Non-Subject Subjectivity, Erika Martínez

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article “Jewish Mysticism from Borges to Cirlot,” Erika Martínez discusses the form in which some Latin American and Spanish poets of the twentieth century have experimented, in a disruptive way, with the subjective possibilities of stillness and of time capable of overflowing. Foucault defended, in his last lectures, the construction of a new governmentality of self and of others. Among the many possible technologies to achieve it would be that of the writing of a poetry without words, knowing the insurrectional potentiality of silence. This provides us with a possible starting point for reading the post-secular revision of …

On Hypothetical Contracts, Karim Barakat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation develops a critique of Rawlsian social contract theory by arguing that the normative component of democratic practices must be grounded in nonpolitical reasons. With John Rawls’s rights-based approach, social contract theory has strongly resurfaced by focusing on consent as the basic condition for the formation of a just state. The emphasis on agreement leads Rawls to exclude historical, religious, or philosophical reasons from justifying the ideal conception of justice. Consequently, Rawls completely separates politics from any nonpolitical grounding. I argue, however that Rawls’s project cannot account for its normative commitments unless it makes use of a nonpolitical ground. …

The Primacy Of Resistance: Anarchism, Foucault, And The Art Of Not Being Governed, Derek C. Barnett

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Beginning with a critical inquiry into the reasons why the field of the political is traditionally elaborated in the archic nexus between government and state sovereignty, this study examines the possibilities of elaborating an alternative theory of the political in the intersections between Michel Foucault’s theory of resistance and anarchist political theory. Taking Foucault’s fifth thesis on power from The History of Sexuality as an alternative paradigm from which to reread the history of the political, the aim of this study is to demonstrate that the hallmark of Foucault’s work emerges in the ways in which his analytic of power …

Foucault, Power And The Modern Panopticon, Connor Sheridan

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Against Totalitarianism: Agamben, Foucault, And The Politics Of Critique, C. Heike Schotten

Political Science Faculty Publication Series

Despite appearances, Agamben’s engagement with Foucault in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life is not an extension of Foucault’s analysis of biopolitics but ra-ther a disciplining of Foucault for failing to take Nazism seriously. This moralizing rebuke is the result of methodological divergences between the two thinkers that, I argue, have fun-damental political consequences. Re-reading Foucault’s most explicitly political work of the mid-1970s, I show that Foucault’s commitment to genealogy is aligned with his commitment to “insurrection”—not simply archival or historical, but practical and political insurrection—even as his non-moralizing understanding of critique makes space for the resistances he hopes …

Against Totalitarianism: Agamben, Foucault, And The Politics Of Critique, C. Heike Schotten

C. Heike Schotten

Eucharist And Dragon Fighting As Resistance: Against Commodity Fetishism And Scientism, Jeffery Nicholas

Jeffery Nicholas

This paper examines two practices – the Roman Catholic Practice of Eucharist and the game Dungeons and Dragons – to show how social critique can be mounted from within a practice. It begins by relating Alasdair MacIntyre’s notion of tradition to his earlier analysis of ideology and to the notion of ideology in general. The paper then tackles two dominant forms of ideology – Commodity Fetishism and Scientism – and shows how both Eucharist and Dungeons and Dragons promote critical thinking to resist those ideologies. In the process, it denies the Althusserian-Foucauldian analysis of ideology as mere materiality and defends …

Foucault, Marxism And The Cuban Revolution: Historical And Contemporary Reflections, Sam Binkley, Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

This article relates central themes of Marxist and Foucauldian thought to the intellectual and political legacy of the Cuban Revolution. Against the backdrop of a reading of Foucault’s relationship to the revolutionary left, it is argued that Marxist theoretical discourse on guerrilla struggle (as articulated by Mao, Guevara and others) provide an intriguing case for bio-political struggle. In the case of the Cuban revolution, an ethics of self-transformation appears in which new ways of living and practicing life are cultivated in opposition to sedimentations of state power. Moreover, in addition to this historical case, a discussion is offered of the …

Michel Foucault E As Lutas Políticas Do Presente: Para Além Do Sujeito Identitário De Direitos, Andre De Macedo Duarte, Maria Rita De Assis César

Andre de Macedo Duarte

ABSTRACT. The text discusses Foucauldian notions such as aesthetics of existence and subjectivation, employing them in order to clarify new forms of political action promoted by autonomous collectives such as the Slut Walk, whose queer inspiration establishes a clear distinction against traditional identity movements. We argue that the political actions conducted by this particular collective can be best understood by relating them to Foucault’s arguments on the issue of identity, as well as to his interest in surpassing a rights acknowledgment centered politics. For Foucault, as much as for the Slut Walk collective, it matters not only to struggle for …

Securing Populations: Foucault And The Cartography Of Natural Bodies, Andrew A.T. Grant

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The concept of biopolitics tends towards universal applicability and thus analytical impotency. By examining Foucault’s lecture seminars that address this concept directly and indirectly, this project aims to delimit its coordinates for future use. To do so, I begin by looking at the way biopolitical discourses on the population constituted liberal governmentality in the eighteenth century. This analysis will be supplemented by a cartography of the surfaces on which biopolitics emerges before and within liberalism, affecting its formation. I will therefore map out the formation of two objects that characterize modern biopower: the ‘natural’ body of the individual and the …

Estética Da Existência Como Política Da Vida Em Comum: Foucault E O Conceito De Comunidades Plurais., Andre De Macedo Duarte, Maria Rita De Assis César

Andre de Macedo Duarte

No abstract provided.

Singularização E Subjetivação: Arendt, Foucault E Os Novos Agentes Políticos Do Presente, Andre De Macedo Duarte

Andre de Macedo Duarte

he text discusses the hypothesis that Arendt’s notion of singularization and Foucault’s notion of subjectivation offer important conceptual contributions to understanding who are the actors and how do they act together in the new and autonomous political collectives. In this text I take under consideration a post- identitarian minorities collective and an eco-esthetical-political collective concerned with the issue of urban mobility. The text is divided into three main parts. Firstly, I discuss Arendt’s notion of political action as the manifestation of the political agents’ singularity, closely connected to her understanding of politics as an end in itself. The manifestation of …

Restructuring Science, Re-Engaging Society, Danielle Lake

Danielle L Lake

Singularisation Et Subjectivation Subjectivation Éthico-Politique. Arendt Et Foucault Autour De La Question : Qui Est Le Nouvel Acteur Politique ?, Andre De Macedo Duarte

Andre de Macedo Duarte

The text proposes and discusses the hypothesis that Arendt’s notion of singularization and Foucault’s notion of subjectivation offer important conceptual contributions to the understanding of who are the actors and how do they act together in the new and autonomous political collectives, taking under consideration some post-identitarian minorities movements. The text is divided into three main parts. Firstly, I discuss Arendt’s notion of political action as the manifestation of the political agents singularity, which articulates with her understanding of politics as an end in itself. This notion seems important to understanding new forms of political engagement which do not limit …

Guantánamo Bodies: Law, Media, And Biopower, Cary Federman, Dave Holmes

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The idea of the Guantánamo detainee as a Muselmann, the lowest order of concentration camp inmates, contains within it important implications for the new understanding of sovereignty in the era of Guantánamo, in an age of exception. The purpose of this article is to explain the status of those who are detained at Guantánamo Bay. Stated broadly, in assessing that status, we will emphasize the connection between the altered meaning of sovereignty that has accompanied the placing of prisoners in an American penal colony in Cuba and the biopolitical status of the prisoners who reside there. More particularly, we …

Una Reflexión Entorno A “El Espíritu De La Ilustración” De Tzvetan Todorov., Mariado Hinojosa

Mariado Hinojosa

Tomando como referencia la obra de Tzvetan Todorov, el presente artículo reflexiona brevemente sobre algunos de los presupuestos heredados de la Ilustración y que marcaron profundamente el horizonte social, cultural y político del pasado siglo XX.

Foucault E A Governamentalidade: Genealogia Do Liberalismo E Do Estado Moderno., Andre De Macedo Duarte

Andre de Macedo Duarte

No abstract provided.

Communautés Plurielles: Pensée De La Communauté Et Action Politique:, Andre De Macedo Duarte

Andre de Macedo Duarte

Cette recherche a deux objectifs complémentaires : dans un premier moment (A), il s’agit de reconstituer la trajectoire de la pensée contemporaine de la communauté, telle qu’elle a été établie par des auteurs comme Maurice Blanchot, Jean-Luc Nancy, Giorgio Agamben et Roberto Esposito, lesquels ont proposé une investigation radicale à l'égard de l'être-en-commun et de la communauté. L'hypothèse qui guide cette première étape de l’investigation est que l'originalité de la pensée de la communauté menée à bout par ces auteurs est due à leur dialogue commun et parfois critique avec le champ ontologique de la critique de la subjectivité moderne …

The Biopolitical Unconscious: Not-All Persons Are Political, Ross G. Shields

Media and Cultural Studies Honors Projects

It is a tenet of post-structuralist theory that discursive series fail in their attempts to constitute themselves as totalities. A system can fail in two distinct ways—from Kant’s dynamic and mathematic failures of reason, to Jacques Lacan’s equation of the two failures of language with the two failures (male and female) of sex. Biopolitical theory offers the most recent account of failure and collapse, now on the geopolitical scale. Given that the biopolitical subject too is sexed, this thesis asks the question: How does biopolitics fail? Franz Kafka’s aborted novels offer a premonition to a possible answer.

Foucault E As Novas Figuras Da Biopolítica: O Fascismo Contemporâneo, Andre De Macedo Duarte

Andre de Macedo Duarte

No abstract provided.

Governmentality, Biopower, And The Debate Over Genetic Enhancement, Ladelle Mcwhorter

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Although Foucault adamantly refused to make moral pronouncements or dictate moral principles or political programs to his readers, his work offers a number of tools and concepts that can help us develop our own ethical views and practices. One of these tools is genealogical analysis, and one of these concepts is “biopower.” Specifically, this essay seeks to demonstrate that Foucault’s concept of biopower and his genealogical method are valuable as we consider moral questions raised by genetic enhancement technologies. First, it examines contemporary debate over the development, marketing, and application of such technologies, suggesting that what passes for ethical deliberation …

Foucault, Marxism And The Cuban Revolution: Historical And Contemporary Reflections, Sam Binkley, Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

Sociology Faculty Publication Series

This article relates central themes of Marxist and Foucauldian thought to the intellectual and political legacy of the Cuban Revolution. Against the backdrop of a reading of Foucault’s relationship to the revolutionary left, it is argued that Marxist theoretical discourse on guerrilla struggle (as articulated by Mao, Guevara and others) provide an intriguing case for bio-political struggle. In the case of the Cuban revolution, an ethics of self-transformation appears in which new ways of living and practicing life are cultivated in opposition to sedimentations of state power. Moreover, in addition to this historical case, a discussion is offered of the …

De Michel Foucault A Giorgio Agamben: A Trajetória Do Conceito De Biopolítica, Andre De Macedo Duarte

Andre de Macedo Duarte

No abstract provided.