Foucault News

7 propos sur le 7e ange- théâtre — musique (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

12 June 2014

7 PROPOS SUR LE 7E ANGE

THÉÂTRE — MUSIQUE

Du 18 juin 2014 au 23 juin 2014
du lundi au samedi [19h30], le dimanche [17h]

DUREE 1h

PDF

Texte Michel Foucault
Preface de la grammaire logique de jean-pierre brisset

Mise en scène Bruno Boulzaguet
Composition Jean-Christophe Feldhandler

Théâtre de L’échangeur, Bagnolet

59, Avenue du General de Gaulle 93170 Bagnolet – metro Gallieni
tarifs 13/10€ – reservations 01 43 62 71 20 – info@lechangeur.org –

Les hommes sont si nécessairement fous que ce serait être fou par un autre tour de folie de n’être pas fou.
Pascal

Michel Foucault, passionné par les fous et le thème de la folie, s’éprend du célèbre « fou littéraire » de la fin du XIXe siècle, Jean-Pierre Brisset , qui fût apprenti pâtissier puis officier de la police judiciaire puis inventeur de la bouée, avant de devenir Grammairien et donner des leçons de langues vivantes.
Une trouvaille que ce phénomène littéraire dont nous connaissons 7 publications dont : « La Grammaire logique » et « La Science de Dieu » qui se donnent comme une recherche sur l’origine de toutes les langues. Brisset y développe une scénographie phonétique ou tous les mots de toutes les langues s’expliquent par le bruit qu’ils font. Dans le langage en émulsion, les mots sautent au hasard, comme les grenouilles dans les marécages, bondissent selon un sort aléatoire, au commencement étaient les dés.
En 1973, Michel Foucault participe à la réédition de La Grammaire logique & la science de Dieuen écrivant un portrait drôle et vertigineux de Jean-Pierre Brisset intitulée : 7 propos sur le 7e ange.
C’est le texte de notre conférence/concert sur l’origine de toutes les langues, un cours de linguistique décalé.
Un conférencier et un percussionniste, pour que le jeu des mots se mêle au jeu des sons.
Univers phonétique

Une première version de ce spectacle a été réalisée au théâtre de L’Atalante en Juin 2011.

Compagnie
THEODOROS GROUP

Textes
Michel Foucault

Metteur en scène
Bruno Boulzaguet

Jeu
Bruno Boulzaguet

Musiciens
Percussions Jean-Christophe Feldhandler

Lumière
Olivier Ooudiou

Composition
Jean-Christophe Feldhandler

Christopher Collstedt, The Descents of Military Violence against Civilians: A History of the Present (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

12 June 2014

Christopher Collstedt
The Descents of Military Violence against Civilians: A History of the Present
(2014) Scandinavian Journal of History, Published online March 2014
https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2013.875060

Abstract
Inspired by the works of Michel Foucault and Erling Sandmo, this article explores contemporary discourses of military violence against civilians from a genealogical perspective. The purpose is to shed light on the historicity of certain structures of knowledge, thoughts, politics and ethics that are fundamental for the ways in which military violence against civilians is put into words, interpreted and explained in various situations and contexts today. My main argument is that the descents of Swedish contemporary discourse on military violence against civilians can be traced back to epistemological and politico-legal conflicts in the 17th century. © 2014 © 2014 the Historical Associations of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Author Keywords
civilians; discourse; epistemology; genealogy; military; violence

Nora McAdams, The History of Madness timeline and infographic (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

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11 June 2014

This infographic “The History of Madness” has been developed by Nora McAdams from the site Best Counseling Degrees, 2 June 2014.

Update September 2025. Link above updated – now on the Psychology.org site.

Wittgenstein and Foucault on ‘scientific’ and ‘philosophical’ truth (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

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10 June 2014

Gastvortrag am IZW: “Wittgenstein and Foucault on ‘scientific’ and ‘philosophical’ truth”,

Dr. Luca Paltrinieri
(Associate Researcher am Chambre de Commerce et d’industrie de Paris, Ile-de-France/CCI-Paris-IDF)

Thursday 16 July 2014, 6pm
Innovationszentrum Wissensforschung (IZW) / Berlin Center for Knowledge Research
Hauptgebäude TU Berlin, Room H 0111
(Hörsaal im Erdgeschoss), Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin

PDF
Website

“In my talk I will try to compare some remarks of the ‘second’ Wittgenstein to the foucaldian conception of « history of Truth », particularly in a period of time going from 1969 to 1971. I do not want to suggest that there had been an underground influence of Wittgenstein on Foucault’s work, but I just want to show that with Wittgenstein’s notions of certainty and Truth it is useful to understand the foucaldian notion of « knowledge ». On the other side the archeological methods developed by Foucault help us to understand the historical dimension of our philosophical concepts. This comparison of two different styles of reasoning will give us the opportunity to do some remarks about historical epistemology. ”

Rückfragen: Innovationszentrum Wissensforschung (IZW)
Tel.: 314-22606; E-Mail: info@wissensforschung.tu-berlin.de

CFP: Conduct and Counter-Conduct: Critical Concepts for Old and New Times? (2014-16)

Clare O'Farrell

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9 June 2014

Call For Papers:

Conduct and Counter-Conduct:
Critical Concepts for Old and New Times?

A special issue of Foucault Studies,
edited Barbara Cruikshank (University of Massachusetts at Amherst)
and Sam Binkley (Emerson College)

PDF of Call for papers

Update September 2025. The special issue in response to this call was published 28 June 2016, no. 21.

Recently, Arnold Davidson* distinguished Michel Foucault’s conceptions of conduct and counter-conduct as the most notable contribution of Foucault’s 1978 lectures. “It is astonishing,” he wrote, “and of profound significance, that the autonomous sphere of conduct has been more or less invisible in the history of modern (as opposed to ancient) moral and political philosophy.” Following Davidson’s lead, we invite contributions for a special issue of Foucault Studies on the theme of counter-conduct. We invite submissions, in particular, to take up the historical, conceptual, and political significance of conduct and counter-conduct either separately or in combination. These might include theoretical inquiries, empirical studies, comparative historical works, interpretive cultural studies or any other mode of intellectual engagement that addresses the theme of counter-conduct.

Questions and topics we aim to address in this volume include:

Given the immanent relation between conduct and counter-conduct, what is the critical difference between them? How can we distinguish between an instance of conduct and one of counter-conduct?
How should we understand the concepts of conduct and counter-conduct, articulated by Foucault in 1978, in relation to his previous and subsequent published works? Or, do these concepts stand apart in relation to a particular problematization?
Are these categories we can use across time, place, religions, institutions? If so, what forms do conduct and counter-conduct take today? If not, what demarcates their usage?
How can contemporary political movements, governmentalities, or moral and political philosophies be engaged through the concepts of conduct and counter-conduct?
Does counter-conduct help us understand new subjectivities and identities shaped by race, class, gender, sexuality, ability or other categories at the margins?
What value does the concept of counter-conduct hold for historical studies?
How is counter-conduct distinguishable from reform and reformation of the self, institutions, or of society? Foucault struggled in his lecture to distinguish counter-conduct as a category from resistance, revolt, and dissent, among other categories. Why does Foucault need to invent a new concept rather than use the vocabularies of pastoral struggles themselves?
What contribution can the concept of counter-conduct make to contemporary scholarship on governmentality?
What is the significance of counter-conduct in the context of contemporary neoliberalism or other formations of global capital, and to the many oppositional social movements that have emerged in their wake?
How can counter-conduct be understood alongside other theorizations of resistance, revolt, and transgression derived from Marxism, post-colonial theory, feminism, cultural studies or queer theory?
What is the relationship of counter-conduct to religion, spirituality and mysticism, either historically or in contemporary manifestations?
How does counter-conduct enable a bridge between the politics and ethics, either in Foucault’s researches or in other contexts?

This special issue of Foucault Studies will appear in Spring 2016. At this time the editors welcome abstracts for submission by October 1, 2014. Final essays will be due April 1, 2015. Please direct all questions and correspondence to both editors: Samuel_binkley@emerson.edu, and cruiksha@polsci.umass.edu.

Foucault Studies is an open-access, peer reviewed interdisciplinary online journal. Since 2004, Foucault Studies has covered the full influence of Foucauldian thought on such problematics and fields of study as power, politics, law, history, social and cultural theory, sexuality, race, religion, gender studies, psychoanalysis, philosophy, geography, architecture, education, health studies, management studies and media studies, as well as others. The Journal also publishes translations of shorter pieces from Foucault’s oeuvre, and carries book reviews, conference and seminar reports. Visit Foucault Studies at https://www.pennpress.org/journals/journal/foucault-studies/.

_________________________________

* Arnold I. Davidson, “In Praise of Counter-Conduct”, History of the Human Sciences October 2011 vol. 24 no. 4 25-41

CFP: A history of penal regimes in global perspective: 1800-2014

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

8 June 2014

Call for Papers
A HISTORY OF PENAL REGIMES IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: 1800-2014
Harvard University
March 5-7^th, 2015
Website

The rise of the prison has been an important historical development of the modern era. Over the past two hundred years, the growth of prisons has ticked upward. Confinement has come to dominate national penal regimes, increasingly replacing bodily harm as a primary form of punishment. Prisons now span the globe. While rates of incarceration have varied widely over the past two centuries across nations and over time, the last third of the twentieth-century witnessed an upward trend from the United States to Brazil and China. In the United States, prisons have become a pressing social problem with the highest number of its citizens behind bars of any country in the world.

On the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975) the influential book that first opened a new line of inquiry into the study of the prison, the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History is planning a conference to spark a global conversation among researchers in the social sciences and humanities at work on the history of distinctive penal regimes. We are interested in exploring the diversity of regimes of punishment, and especially the prison as an institution within them, the paths along which they changed, and—most especially—the connections between these changes in different parts of the world. The conference is open to papers that address a variety of themes from the philosophical underpinnings of systems of punishment, the character and function of regimes of incarceration and penality in colonial, liberal, neo-liberal and authoritarian state systems, and the distinctive cultures of confinement that have emerged within these varied systems. We hope to balance broadly comparative papers and revealing case studies. We are seeking proposals from scholars at all stages of their academic career, including graduate students. We are particularly interested in forging a global discussion of these topics, and therefore especially welcome contributions from outside North America and Europe.

The Weatherhead Initiative on Global History is a recently created center that responds to the growing interest at Harvard in the encompassing study of global history. The Initiative is committed to the systematic scrutiny of developments that have unfolded across national, regional, and continental boundaries as well as to analysis of the interconnections—cultural, economic, ecological and demographic—among world societies. For further information about WIGH and the conference, please consult our website at http://wigh.wcfia.harvard.edu.

Proposals should include an abstract of no more than 500 words and a brief curriculum vita. Please email your submissions to Jessica Barnard (jbarnard@wcfia.harvard.edu) by May 25, 2014 with the heading “Penal Regimes Conference.” Travel expenses (economy) as well as accommodation will be covered.

WIGH Chairs:
Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History, Harvard University
Charles S. Maier, Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Harvard University

François Caillat (dir.), Foucault contre lui-même. Livre et film (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

7 June 2014

François Caillat (dir.) Foucault contre lui-même , Paris: PUF, 2014

L’ouvrage
Dans sa vie privée, autant que dans son œuvre ou dans son rapport à la politique, Foucault n’a cessé de rompre avec lui-même.
Dans sa vie privée, Foucault quitte sa région natale très jeune, il change son patronyme et travaille dur pour intégrer l’ENS de Paris. Aussitôt entre les murs de la rue d’Ulm, il s’y sent mal et quitte la France, voyage à travers l’Europe, sans se fixer. Même quand il intègrera le Collège de France, il ne cessera de se définir contre l’institution. Dans son œuvre, il réécrit ses livres quand il les réédite, se dit « enfant de cœur du structuralisme » avant de dire qu’il n’a jamais été structuraliste, renie certains de ses livres. Il s’intéresse au marxisme puis, quelques années plus tard, au néolibéralisme et soutient des mouvements politiques (mouvements gays, maoïsme…), puis les critique, parfois très durement. Foucault, comme il l’a dit lui même, n’aura cessé de s’arracher à lui-même, de se « déprendre », de sans cesse se construire contre ce qu’il a été et ce qu’il a fait.

Ce livre montre comment la rupture est au centre du travail de Foucault et de sa vie, à travers des réflexions sur l’histoire, les mouvements homosexuels, la théorie, la domination, les institutions, l’Université, etc. Loin de se limiter toutefois à un commentaire académique de Foucault, il repense l’héritage de Foucault afin d’élaborer de nouveaux problèmes théoriques et de nouvelles politiques de lutte contre les mécanismes de la domination.

Table des matières

Se déprendre, François Caillat

Que signifie penser? Geoffroy de Lagasnerie

Percevoir l’intolérable, Arlette Farge

Apprendre à fuir (à propos des modes relationnels), Leo Bersani

Savoir trancher, Georges Didi-Huberman

François Caillat est réalisateur. Agrégé de philosophie, il a réalisé de nombreux documentaires et plusieurs films sur de grandes figures intellectuelles comme Le Clézio ou encore Julia Kristeva. Il a notamment réalisé Foucault contre lui-même, diffusé sur Arte en juin 2014.

Contributions d’Arlette Farge, Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, Leo Bersani, Georges Didi Huberman, Didier Eribon.

With thanks to Alexandre Klein for this news

‘Foucault contre lui-même’: un film de François Caillat (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

6 June 2014

‘Foucault contre lui-même’: un film de François Caillat (2014)

Cécile Mazin, Foucault contre lui-même : Arte dans la tête d’un philosophe
Un documentaire pour le trentième anniversaire de la mort, ActuaLitté, 15 avril 2014.

À l’occasion du trentième anniversaire de la disparation de Michel Foucault, arte diffuse le documentaire Foucault contre lui-même – ou comment un penseur majeur du 20e siècle a réussi à ne jamais donner une vision figée de lui-même et de ses travaux.

Disparu en juin 1984, Michel Foucault a laissé une œuvre traduite dans le monde entier, soumise à interprétation, source d’inspiration pour de nombreux penseurs. L’homme se montra à la mesure de son œuvre : complexe et contrasté. Il fut en même temps militant radical et professeur au collège de France, engagé politique et philosophe studieux, vivant volontiers aux marges et soucieux de tenir une place centrale dans l’institution. C’était un personnage brillant, incisif, iconoclaste.

Intervenant depuis sa chaire comme dans la rue, il a incarné la figure d’un intellectuel en prise avec son temps, tirant de son expérience personnelle la matière à des réflexions qui ont dépassé son époque et font autorité.

Le film présente le cheminement d’une pensée sujette à variations et souvent à des reniements, déplacée d’une discipline à l’autre, changeant de perspective et de centres d’intérêt, mais inscrite dans une grande cohérence. En trente ans, le travail de Michel Foucault construit un parcours multiple, pluriel, d’une originalité reconnue par tous et probablement inégalée.

Rendez-vous le 18 juin, à 22h20 sur Arte, donc.

La politique des conduites. Pour une histoire du rapport entre subjectivation éthique et subjectivité politique (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

5 June 2014

Daniele Lorenzini
“La politique des conduites. Pour une histoire du rapport entre subjectivation éthique et subjectivité politique”

Université Paris-Est Créteil, 61 avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94010 Créteil (métro Créteil-Université, ligne 8), salle des thèses

Résumé :
À partir de l’usage croisé des perspectives philosophiques de Michel Foucault, Pierre Hadot et Stanley Cavell, cette thèse vise à inaugurer un champ de recherche en éthique et en philosophie politique jusqu’à maintenant presque inexploré. Elle a trois objectifs principaux : (1) Explorer le rapport qui existe entre éthique et politique, ou plus précisément entre philosophie morale et philosophie politique, à travers la redéfinition de leurs objets, de leurs méthodes et de leurs buts respectifs par le biais d’un usage spécifique de la pensée de Michel Foucault et de Ludwig Wittgenstein. Élaborer par conséquent une « philosophie analytique de la politique » qui se propose de rendre visible l’existence et le fonctionnement concret du pouvoir dans ses ramifications ordinaires et son impact assujettissant-subjectivant sur la vie quotidienne des individus. (2) Mettre en lumière la valeur des techniques de soi et des exercices spirituels, ou mieux de ce que l’on suggère d’appeler « techniques de l’ordinaire », grâce à la comparaison, mais aussi à la mise « en tension », des travaux du dernier Michel Foucault, de Pierre Hadot et de Stanley Cavell (notamment ceux qui abordent le « perfectionnisme moral »), ainsi que, entre autres, de Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Stuart Mill, Henry David Thoreau, Iris Murdoch et Cora Diamond. (3) Poser le problème du statut de la vérité à l’intérieur d’une telle perspective éthico-politique, en défendant la nécessité d’élaborer une conception non-épistémologique de la vérité et en s’interrogeant sur le rôle que cette conception joue par rapport aux techniques de l’ordinaire.

“The Politics of Conduct. A History of the Relationship between Ethical Subjectivation and Political Subjectivity”

Abstract:
Starting from a crossed use of Michel Foucault, Pierre Hadot and Stanley Cavell’s philosophical perspectives, this dissertation aims to open a new field of research in ethics and political philosophy. It has three main objectives: (1) Exploring the relationship between ethics and politics, or more precisely between moral and political philosophy, through a redefinition of their objects, methods and goals via a specific use of Michel Foucault and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s thought. Developing, as a consequence, an “analytic philosophy of politics” aiming to make visible the existence and concrete functioning of power in its ordinary ramifications and its effects of subjection-subjectivation on the everyday life of the individuals. (2) Highlighting the value of the techniques of the self and the spiritual exercises, or better of what can be called the “techniques of the ordinary”, thanks to the comparison, but also the confrontation, between the works of Michel Foucault, Pierre Hadot and Stanley Cavell (especially his writings on “moral perfectionism”), as well as, among others, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Stuart Mill, Henry David Thoreau, Iris Murdoch and Cora Diamond. (3) Raising the problem of the meaning of the notion of truth within such an ethico-political context, defending the necessity to elaborate a non-epistemological conception of truth and exploring its role in relation to the techniques of the ordinary.

Foucault and Research Ethics: On the Autonomy of the Researcher (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

4 June 2014

Hammersley, M., Traianou, A.
Foucault and Research Ethics: On the Autonomy of the Researcher
(2014) Qualitative Inquiry, 20 (3), pp. 227-238.

Abstract
This article uses the later writings of Foucault as a means of reflecting on research ethics, and in particular on the notion of researcher autonomy. It is suggested that such autonomy is a precondition for ethical practice, and also for sound research, and it is noted that it is under threat today, not least from creeping ethical regulation. Foucault’s philosophical position is outlined, noting the shift that took place in his later writings. There have been only a few attempts to use his ideas in thinking about research ethics, but we examine how they have been applied in relation to the ethics of anthropology. This is followed by a discussion of some widely recognized, and quite serious, problems with Foucault’s position. Finally, a number of positive and negative lessons that can be learned from his work are presented.

Author Keywords
autonomy; Foucault; research ethics

DOI: 10.1177/1077800413489528