Foucault News

MARCO DÍAZ MARSÁ, Ley y ser, Derecho y ontología crítica en Foucault (1978-1984)
Editorial: Escolar y Mayo
Año de publicación: 2016.
País de publicación: España

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“Sorprende descubrir en este libro una lectura de Foucault muy a contracorriente de lo habitual. Muchos se extrañarán de comprobar hasta qué punto, para Foucault, el cuidado de la libertad es también el cuidado del derecho y de la ley. Toda una invitación para la recuperación crítica de las mejores armas de la razón y de la Ilustración, en polémica directa con los grandes profetas de la sospecha radicalizada.” Carlos Fernández Liria

Repárese en que el principio de limitación gubernamental no es aquí el mercado ni el interés, sino algo que se habrá de ubicar al exterior de la dinámica de los intereses, justamente los derechos humanos. Con todo, lo que resulta más sobresaliente es el vínculo que Foucault establece entre el «afecto político» y una «política de los derechos humanos». ¿Es posible fundar una política de los derechos humanos en un afecto, en un sentimiento –y no en una idea positiva de «humanidad»? ¿Cómo fundar a partir de las indignaciones, de la détestation, de lo inaguantable o de lo intolerable una política de los derechos humanos? Las indicaciones que Foucault procura para elaborar una posible respuesta a esta cuestión vendrían a desconcertar y a incordiar en todo lo esperado.

Malcolm Voyce, Foucault, Buddhism and Disciplinary Rules, Routledge, 2017

About the Book
This book suggests that previous critiques of the rules of Buddhist monks (Vinaya) may now be reconsidered in order to deal with some of the assumptions concerning the legal nature of these rules and to provide a focus on how Vinaya texts may have actually operated in practice. Malcolm Voyce utilizes the work of Foucault and his notions of ‘power’ and ‘subjectivity’ in three ways. First, he examines The Buddha’s role as a lawmaker to show how Buddhist texts were a form of lawmaking that had a diffused and lateral conception of authority. While lawmakers in some religious groups may be seen as authoritative, in the sense that leaders or founders were coercive or charismatic, the Buddhist concept of authority allows for a degree of freedom for the individual to shape or form themselves. Second, he shows that the confession ritual acted as a disciplinary measure to develop a unique sense of collective governance based on self regulation, self-governance and self-discipline. Third, he argues that while the Vinaya has been seen by some as a code or form of regulation that required obedience, the Vinaya had a double nature in that its rules could be transgressed and that offenders could be dealt with appropriately in particular situations. Voyce shows that the Vinaya was not an independent legal system, but that it was dependent on the Dharmaśāstra for some of its jurisprudential needs, and that it was not a form of customary law in the strict sense, but a wider system of jurisprudence linked to Dharmaśāstra principles and precepts.

Table of contents
Introduction to the Work of Foucault and its Use in this Study
An Overview of the Vinaya
The Presentation of the Vinaya within Forms of Western Scholarship
The Vinaya and the Dharmaśāstra
The Formation of the Religious Body
From Ethics to Aesthetics
The Role of Confession and Discipline
Rules and Transgressions
Conclusion: The ‘Care of the Self’ and the Practice of the Vinaya

Malcolm Voyce graduated in law at Auckland University in 1970. In 1980 he completed a Doctorate under J.D.M. Derrett at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK, on the topic of the rules of Buddhist monks. This Doctorate was published in five articles. While teaching law at Macquarie University in 2001, he completed a second Doctorate on Foucault. This Doctorate has been published in article form and Dr Voyce has published some 20 articles or chapters in books utilizing the work of Foucault. In the last few years Dr Voyce has published further articles on Buddhism and law in leading journals. He recently published, with Erich Kolig, an edited volume entitled Muslim Integration, Pluralism and Multiculturalism in New Zealand and Australia (2016). Dr Voyce is currently an Associate Professor of Law at Macquarie University, Australia.