Suppose a society called everyhing slightly
red "red" and grouped purple along along with red in the process. And
compare this to a society that called everything
slightly orange "orange," included red (but not purple) under the category,
but also yellow. How would these two societies
be able to talk about the color of things? They would be using different
language maps to organize colors and a simple
translation from one to the other appears simply impossible.
The problem is that within our own language
community we fail to notice the way in which we are constituting what we
talk about by such arbitrary language practices
that have become second nature to us. Studying these discourse
formations (or discursive formations) is "archeology."
We will try to grasp the implicit rules we use that work together to
form this map of the world around us.
Without knowing it, we group distinguishable
objects into unities and thus constitute our objects. An object is constituted
like this by a "unity of discourse". In Wittgensteinian
terms, this might mean by a language game.) The unity of discourse
on a particular topic (or object) "would be
the interplay of rules that define the transformation of these objects,
their
non-identity through time, the break produced
in them, the internal discontinuity that suspends their permanence."
(archeology of Knowledge, p.33) For
example, we constitute the object of "marriage" by a set of rules that
allows us to
say that we are "married" together with the
interplay of rules that defines the marriage as dissolved (annulled, divorced,
non-valid). Foucault suggests that an archeology
should examine the way this works, how we control our mental
taxonomy through language practices.
diseases of power
Foucault names two "diseases of power" fascism
and Stalinism (Foucault Afterword, in Dreyfus and Rabinow, p.209)
These are "excesses" of power.
dispositif
The concept of an episteme is insuficient
and dispositif fills in the gap. An episteme is researched through
the analysis of
discourse (text), but there are practices
(institutions, architectural arrangments, regulations, laws, administrative
measures, scientific statements, philosphic
propositions, morality, philanthropy) in addition to discourse which we
may
use to do a genealogical analysis of some
particular situation. (Dreyfus and Rabinow, p.121) These practices form
an
intensified surveillance and control mechanism
(Darier, 589), creating policy which polices and disciplines and which
leads to resistance among certain groups.
determinism
a condition in which all forms of liberty
are gradually suppressed; madness shows us nothing more than the natural
constants of a detemrinism, with the sequences
of its causes, and the discursive movement of its forms; for madness
threatens modern man only with that return
to the bleak world of beasts and things, to their fettered freedom. (Madness
and Civilization, p.83)
discourse
Practices obeying certain rules: "Archaeology
tries to define not the thoughts, representations, images, themes,
preoccupations that are concealed or revealed
in discourses; but those discourses themselves, those discourses as
practices obeying certain rules." (Archaeology,
138)
domination
domination is often indirect. People often
feel they are fighting domination when they are yielding to it. Domination
is not
merely oppression that refuses to let the
people have their pleasure. People who are resisting that kind of oppression
are
often unwittingly supporting their own domination.
Power always requires resistance. (see Dreyfus and Rabinow, p.169)
Enkrateia
"self-control", the power one must have over
oneself to use aphrodisia rightly; connected to ascesis which is "training
in
self-denial"
episteme
equivalent to a paradigm.
gaze
penetrating and sage observation. In the Birth
of the Clinic, Foucault speaks of the myth of the clinical gaze, that is,
the
myth that the physician can see into the heart
of a problem in order to diagnose and treat it, and that this ability to
know
by gazing is a result of the vast array of
obsevations that the clinician has made.
genealogy
The genealogy of knowledge consists of two
separate bodies of knowledge: First, the dissenting opinions and theories
that did not become the established and widely
recognized and, second, the local beliefs and understandings
(think of
what nurses know about medicine that does
not achieve power and general recognition). The genealogy is concerned
with bringing these two knowledges, and their
struggles to pass themselves on to others, out into the light of
the day.
Genealogy does not claim to be more
true than institutionalized knowledge, but merely to be the missing part
of the
puzzle. It works by isolating the central
components of some current day political mechanism (such as maintainng
the
power structure which diagnoses mental illness)
and then traces it back to its historical roots (Dreyfus and Rabinow,
p.119). These historical roots are visible
to us only through the two separate bodies of genealogical knowledge
described above.
Foucault says, "Let us give the term 'genealogy'
to the union of erudite knowledge and local memories which allows us to
establish a historical knowledge of struggles
and to make use of this knowledge tactically today. (Genealogy and social
Criticism, p.42)"
The geneaalogical side of analysis tries to
grasp the power of constituting a domain of objects. If a society were
to
institute the role of medicine man, for example,
and give him special privileges, we would thereby "constitute the object
of medicine man." Until we established
and institutionalized this practice, nothing could be called a "medicine
man." The
genealogy explores what was not evident because
of the institutionalization of knowledge by those in power.
(see Discourse on Language which is the appendix
in the Archeology of Knowledge.); Whereas archeologystudies the
practices of language (in a strict sense),
genealogy uncovers the creation of objects through institutional practices.
(Dreyfus & Rabinow, p.104). Whereas the
archeological historian claims to write from a neutral, disinterested
perspective, the Nietzschean or Foucaultian
genealogist admits the political and polemical interests motivating the
writing
of the history (Hoy, 1986, p.6-7)
general grammar
"general grammar is the study of verbal order
in relationship to the simultaneity that it is its task to represent. "
(The
Order of Things, p.83) "It appeared in the
second half of the seventh century and faded away during the last years
of the
following century."(The Order of Things, p.91)
genesis
genesis - the analysis of the constitution
of orders on the basis of empirical series.(Order of things, p.78)
government
[B]y government Foucault meant not so much
the political or administrative structurs of the modern state as 'the way
in
which the conduct of individuals or of groups
might be directed: the government of children, of souls, of communities,
of
families, of the sick.... To govern, in this
sense, is to structure the possible field of action of others' (Burchell
et al, 1991,
cited by Smart, 1992). (Foucault's afterword
in Dreyfus and Rabinow, p.221)
governmentality
A centralization and increased government
power. This power is not negative. In fact, it produces reality through
"rituals
of truth" and it creates a particular style
of subjectivity with which one conforms to or resists. Because the individuals
are
taken into this subjectivity they become part
of the normalizing force. Governmentality also includes a growing body
of
knowledge that presents itself as "scientific,"
and which contributes to the power of governmentality. This is a term
introduced by Foucault in the resume (199)
and illustrated in other articles (1979b) 1981, 1984a. (see Darier).
Also see
Foucault's article on this topic.
Governmentality is a novel kind of governing
that emerged in Europe during the sixteenth century. It happened when
feudalism was failing and when their was a
loss of power in the absolute monarch. Even though we do not have
absolute
power of the monarch now, we do have govenrment.
To a large extent this is internalized by people, but there is also
survelliance and reinforcement for conforming
to the rules. This new kind of governmentality was made possible
by the
creation of specific (expert or professional)
"knowledges" as well as the construction of experts, institutions and
disciplines (e.g., medicine, psychology, psychiatry)
so that individuals who we think of as experts can claim the
knowledge necessary to command the power of
governmentality. .
heteroptia
A space in which contradictory elements are
juxtaposed.
historicity
The historical bias of each author, each society,
each academic discipline. There is no narrative that describes history
apart from the situatedness of the story-teller.
"Thus, behind the history of the positivities, there appears another, more
radical history, that of man hmself - a history
that now concerns man's very being since he now realizes that he not only
'haas history' all around him, but is himself,
in his own historicity, that by means of which a history of human life,
a history
of economics, and a history of languages are
given their form." (The Order of Things, p.370)
historicism
A means of working with the problem that all
"history" is history from the perspective of the historian. "Historicism
is a
means of validating for itself the perpetual
critical relation at play between History and the human sciences." (OT,
p.372)
"All knowledge is rooted in a life, a society,
and a language that have a history; and it is in that very history that
knowledge finds the element enabling it to
communicate with other forms of life."(OT, p.372/3)
mathesis
the science of calculable order (Order of
Things, p.73) a qualitative science of order (see 74-75 Order of Things)
negative power
Negative power is "power that says no." (Power/Knowledge,
p.139) It is the power that says that something cannot be
done and that acts to enforce this law. Positive
power inspires and solves certain problems, enables, serves use to
someone.
measurement
measurement enables us to to analyze like
things according to the calculable form of identity and difference. (Order
of
Things, p.53)
normalisation
the moulding of people into "normal" as opposed
to "abnormal" forms., and the process by which a culture encourages
its people to regulate and achieve his or
her own conformity with the established rules. This is achieved through
governmentality.
order
Order can be established without reference
to an exterior unit. (He seems to be thinking of "order" as a kind of sorting
or
establishing of priorities.)
panopticon
The method of surveillance in the modern prison
- this is the method that the modern state uses to execute and regulate
its control of society. Unlike the monarchical
state, which uses brute force to control its subjects, the 'democratic'
state
requires internalized and sophisticated coercion
to perform this function. The term "panopticon" was a name suggested
by Jeremy Bentham (Betham, 1995). In
a prison built with modern archetecture that allows guards to see continuously
inside each cell, the "panopticon" is the
central observing tower even though the prisoners cannot see that they
are being
observed. This constant gaze controls
the prisoners affecting not only what they do but how they see themselves.
and
replaced the use of a dungeon and dark cell
to control the prisoner (1979a, 170). This image serves as a metaphor
for
the power in of governmentality in the modern
state.
pastoral power
The kind of power that is exercised by the
Church. It rests on the church's power to assure individual salvation in
the
next world. It is linked with the notion of
individualism (as in individual salvation). In modern times, the salvation
in the
next life has been commuted to a salvation
in this life (health, wellbeing, security, etc.) (1982, 213-215)
police
The job of the police is the articulation
and adminisration of techniques of bio-power so as to increase the state's
control
over its inhabitants.
positivity
(The Order of Things, p.348)
pathologization
There are two senses: First, the natural depletion
of the organism producing tremors, pertrubations, etc., and second, the
"discovery" that at the root of sexuality
is a source of illness in the form of a hidden passivity. Sexuality is
therefore not
evil but the source of ills. (Foucault, Care
of the Self, p.142)
power
Power is exerted implicitly by the way in
which our conversation (i.e., discourse) is formed, and it is often exerted
by
denying its own truth, or by myths that misrepresent
the source of power by pointing to less powerful sources. For
example, in the History of Sexuality, Foucault
explains that we moderns tend to think of our sexuality as repressed by
social forces that forbid us sexual release.
The myth here is that we are sexually repressed but this popularity of
this myth
deeply shapes the nature of our sexuality
by introducing the ritual of confession. We confess (in church, in
psychoanalysis) the thoughts which nature
tells us should be free (or we would be free of if we were not repressed)
but
which, due to the nature of our repression
cause us to suffer in secret humilitation. But what is powerful today is
less any
mythical repression of our sexuality and more
the myth of repression that leads us to have faith in the ritual of confession
to free us of our psychic pain. This myth,
and its corresponding ritual, implicitly design our sexual experience by
telling us
what our sexual experience should be, what
we should look for, and by coloring that experience not only with shame
and
self-reproach but with the hidden excitement
and fascination that makes our sexuality what it is.
Power is also fueled by resistance. Without
resistance, all power fades.
The above is the major theme in "The History
of Sexuality," however see especially pp 56-69. Here are a few
representative quotations.
"The important thing...is not that ...men shut
their eyes or stopped their ears, or that they were mistaken [about sexual
repression]; it is rather that they constructed
around and appropos of sex an immense apparatus for producing truth,
even if this truth was to be masked at the
last moment." (56)
"Historically, there have been two great procedures
for producing the truth of sex.(57)" One is the technique of having
erotic masters who "can transmit this art
in an esoteric manner.(57)" The second procedure is the "confession,"
and
today, "western man has become a confessing
animal.(59)" "The obligation to confess is now relayed through so
many
different points, is so deeply ingrained in
us, that we no longer perceive it as the effect of a power that constrains
us; on
the contrary, it seems to us that truth, lodged
in our most secret nature, "demands" only to surface;..." (60)
The two principal texts in which Foucualt evaluates
and and substantiates his model of power relations are
Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews &
Other Writings 1972-1977 and The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, An
Introduction.
Power/knowledge
Knowledge of how people's behavior can be
affected. It is based on new techniques of social engineering, education,
etc.
reflexive form of knowledge
What we know about ourselves not by introspection
but reflection. (The Order of Things, 363)
representation
That which can be cast in a quantifiable and
scientifically rigorous form. "Usually, the attempt is made to define
it
[positivity] in in terms of mathematic: either
by trying to bring it as near to mathematics as possible, by drawing up
an
inventory of everything in the sciences of
man that is mathematicizable, and suppose that everything that is not susceptible
of such a formalization has not yet attained
to scientific. (Order of Things, p.363)
repressive hypothesis
A term that Focault introduces in the History
of Sexuality. It is the view that truth is is repressed by a powerful
force and
that we can liberate ourselves by getting
down to the truth. Foucault opposes the "repressive hypothesis"
to "bio-technico-power (or bio-power). (Dreyfus
and Rabinow, p. 127). The repressive hypothesis about sexuality is
that western civilization has moved from a
time of shameless sexuality to an era of repressed sexuality, restricted
to the
parents' bedroom. (Part 2 of the five part
The History Sexuality is called The Repressive Hypothesis). The repressive
hypothesis holds that sex is repressed because
it is incompatible with the work ethic in the rise of capitlism during
the last
two centuries.
In the repressive view of power "[All power]
can do is forbid, and all it can command is obedience. Power, ultimately,
is
repression; repression, ultimately, is the
imposition of the law; the law, ultimately, demands submission." (Dreyfus
&
Rabinow, p. 130)
resistance
"there are no relations of power without resistance"
(1980, 142)
similitude
Foucault teaches this concept by example from
Bacon: The human Intellect, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a
greater order and equality in things than
it actually finds; and, while there are many things in Nature unique, and
quite
irregular, still it feigns parallels, correspondnts,
and relations that have no existence. Hence that fiction, 'that among the
heavenly bodies all motion takes place by
perfect circles.' from The Order of Things, p.52
Sophrosyne
"discretion" or "wisdom", it also means "chastity";
the KNOWLEDGE, which can be of the ultimate meaning of the
nature and purpose of love/sex, by which one
can practice aphrodisia, chresis, and enkrateia successfully
self-fashioning
care of the self-- This is analogous to self-government
subjugated knowledges
a whole set of knowledges that have been disqualified
as inadequate to their task or insufficiently elaborated: naive
knowledges, located low down on the hierarchy,
beneath the required level of
cognition or scientificity (1980:82).
subjugated - being made subject to, being governed by institutionalized
forces that control and
and frame.(1982,
213)
subjectivity - subjugation.(subjection).
taxinomia
When dealing with the ordering of complex
natures (representations in general, as they are given in experience),
one has
to constitute a taxinomia, and to do that
one has to establish a system of signs. These signs are to the order of
composite
natures what algebra is to the order of simple
natures. But in so far as empirical representations must be analyzable
into
simple natures, it si clear that the taximonia
relates wholly to the mathesis (Order of things, p.72)
technologies of self
Technologies of the self are the specific
practices by which subjects constitute themselves as subjects within and
through
systems of power, and which often seem to
be either 'natural' or imposed from above.
truth
"The important thing here...is that truth
isn't outside power, or lacking in power: contrary to a myth whose history
and
functions would repay further study, truth
isn't the reward of free spirits, the child 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." In other words,
our institutions and schools of thought, our universities and charismatic
leaders, our ministers our parents, our teachers,
all of these collaborate to create a context in which something is
established as "true." And think of truth
as that which emerges only within certain sets of rules (much like Lyotard's
notion of local definitions). For example,
the rules of science say that we should define our concepts operationally,
using
specific measurement techniques. Studies of
bone density, for example, must define it either as measurement of bone
density of spine, the femur, the metacarpal
or some other boney structure. But, since the density of these various
bones is
not highly correlated, different studies who
use different bones will uncover "different truths." Truth emerges only
within a
structure of rules that control the language,
the discourse."Truth presents itself as the product of discursive practices."
(Pasquino)
unity of discourse
"the unity of discourses on madness would
not be based upon the existence of the object 'madness', or the constitution
of
a single horizon of objectivity; it would
be the interplay of the rules that make possble the appearance of objects
during a
given period of time: objects are shaped by
measures of discrimination and repression, objects that are differentiated
in
daily practice, in law, in religious casuitry,
in medical diagnosis, objects that are manifested in pathological descriptions,
objects that are circumscribed by medical
codes, practices, treatment, and care. Moreover, ...the unity of
the discourse
on madness would be the interplay of the rules
that define the transformations of these different objects, their non-identity
through time, the break produced in them,
the intrnal discontinuity that suspends their permanence."
(The archeology of Knowledge, p.32-33)
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