Foucault News

Forlenza, R., Thomassen, B.
Christian democracy as political spirituality: transcendence as transformation—Italian politics, 1942–1953 (2024) Politics and Religion

DOI: 10.1017/S1755048324000063

Abstract
This article deals with the transformation of Catholic politics in Italy between 1942 and 1945 and the emergence of Christian Democracy as the dominant political party in the postwar years. It analyzes how Catholic politicians turned from reactionary critics of democracy to its champion. The article foregrounds a dimension that has not been given sufficient attention in scholarly works on political Catholicism and Christian Democracy, namely the religious content of thought. In the experiences of politicians and thinkers living through Fascism and war, transcendence and spirituality emerged as new markers of certainty that came to re-direct and ground democracy. Our conceptual argument is that Christian Democracy can be understood as a distinct form of “political spirituality,” pace Foucault. The article further shows how this political spirituality became “applied” in a series of ways in the immediate postwar period. © The Author(s), 2024.

Author Keywords
Christian Democracy; democratic transition; political spirituality; religious politics; war experiences

Inowlocki, S.
From Text to Relics: The Emergence of the Scribe-Martyr in Late Antique Christianity (Fourth Century–Seventh Century) (2024) Journal of Early Christian Studies, 32 (3), pp. 403-430.

DOI: 10.1353/earl.2024.a936760

Abstract
This paper delves into the conflation of two prominent figures of authority in the early Christian world: the scribe-scholar and the martyr. While previous scholarship has largely examined these figures separately, this study focuses on their association and argues that they were meaningfully combined to establish a new form of textual authority. The motif of the scribe-martyr is explored in a series of Christian texts, from Pseudo-Pionius to John Moschus and late ancient hagiographic texts, tracing its origins to the fourth century. This development emerged from the growing association between the authority of written texts as physical objects and the rise of the cult of saints and their relics.

In parallel with Foucault’s concept of the author-function, a distinct Christian “scribe-function” emerged within this context, i.e., discourses of authority, fictitious or historical, involving the individuals who reproduced or corrected texts. The paper posits that the motif of the scribe-martyr was then strategically employed in legal, scholarly, and institutional contexts to express faithfulness, resistance, authorization, and legitimation. As a result, this conflation contributed significantly to the attribution of holiness and authority to texts, sacred places, and religious institutions. Thus, the scribe-martyr, connected to the revered relic-texts, assumed a particularly potent role as a figure of theological authority within late ancient Christianity. © 2024 Johns Hopkins University Press.

Leonard D’Cruz, The Limits of Radical Historicism: The Methodological Significance of Foucault’s Relationship to Transcendental Philosophy, Angelaki, 29(6), 2024, 53–76.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2024.2430899

Abstract:
This article examines the methodological significance of Foucault’s relationship to transcendental philosophy. While Foucault presents his work as a historicist transformation of Kant’s critical project, some commentators question whether he succeeds in eradicating the transcendental dimension of critique. In this way, they raise doubts over whether he can sustain his methodological commitment to radical historicism. In response, I argue that Foucault can reflexively account for his use of transcendental motifs while remaining faithful to his historicist methodology. More specifically, I show how the concept of sedimentation can give coherence to the supposedly paradoxical notion of the historical a priori. Furthermore, I demonstrate that Foucault’s ostensibly transcendental assumptions about power and subjectivity are best understood as contingent features of his analytical framework rather than earnest metaphysical claims.

Keywords:
Foucault genealogy transcendental critique historical a priori sedimentation

Ratcliffe, J.
Genealogy: A conceptual map (2024) European Journal of Philosophy

DOI: 10.1111/ejop.12949

Abstract
The blossoming literature on genealogy in recent years has come as somewhat of a pleasant surprise to the historically inclined among us. It has not, however, come without its difficulties. As I see it, the literature on genealogy is guilty of two conflations, what I call the “debunking/problematizing conflation” and the “problematizing/rationalizing conflation.” Both are the result of the inadequate typological maps currently used to organize the literature. As a result, what makes many genealogies philosophically interesting often remains obscure. In response, I propose a new two-dimensional typology that avoids these conflations and outfits us with a richer conceptual vocabulary with which to understand and organize the genealogies which populate the literature. By identifying a second dimension of analysis which has thus far gone untheorized, my typology enables us to elucidate the various normative objectives and objects of investigation structuring a literature which is more diverse than previously acknowledged. We can thus get a clearer understanding of the problems those genealogies face, of their critical potential, and of their implications for our conception of critique. © 2024 The Authors. European Journal of Philosophy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Author Keywords
background frameworks; Brandom; debunking; debunking/problematizing conflation; Foucault; genealogy; genetic fallacy; problematizing; problematizing/rationalizing conflation; rationalizing; self-defeat; two-dimensional typology; vindicatory; Wittgenstein

Bigoni, M., Maran, L., Occhipinti, Z.
Of power, knowledge and method: The influence of Michel Foucault in accounting history
(2024) Accounting History

DOI: 10.1177/10323732241243088

Abstract
Michel Foucault’s work had a strong influence not only in philosophy but also in a wide range of humanistic and social disciplines, including accounting. Notably, the first studies which brought Foucault’s thought to the attention of interdisciplinary accounting scholars were historical. This article documents how Foucault’s ideas have directly inspired accounting history scholars, how the latter have interpreted and brought Foucault’s work into their field as well as what future research paths may lie ahead. The article offers a systematisation of how the complex ideas of Foucault have been translated into eight key themes that have provided a crucial interpretive prism to many studies in accounting history. In doing so, it assists scholars wishing to familiarise themselves with Foucault’s work and employ it in their research. © The Author(s) 2024.

Author Keywords
accounting history; Foucault; interdisciplinary; knowledge; literature review; power