The Enlightened Virtuoso: Foucault and Humanism

Monday, May 2, 2016

Foucault and Humanism

"Man is disappearing in philosophy," he explained in 1968, "not as an object of knowledge, but as the subject of liberty and of existence."

Foucault, "Foucault répond à Sartre" (interview with J.-P. Elkabbach), in Dits et écrits, vol. I, 1954-1969, p. 664.

"In a 1979 letter to the Iranian Prime Minister, Paras points out, Focault mentioned 'human rights' no less than four times, and 'rights' and additional seven."

Michael C. Behrent, "Liberalism without Humanism" in Foucault and Neoliberalism, eds. Daniel Zamora and Michael C. Behrent (Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2016), p. 28. Citing: E. Paras, Foucault 2.0: Beyond Power and Knowledge (New York: Other Press, 2006), p. 97.

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Dear reader,

Welcome! This blog started off as a personal project meant more for myself than anyone else. In that regard, it has served as a catalog for the resources I tend to enjoy. However, recent circumstances have changed the way I have utilized this medium. For a while I began using it as a public journal, following the example of my personal journal. While it may seem strange, I use my journals as a record of intellectual exposure and growth rather than mediums of creative outpouring. I often post quotes that I have found particularly meaningful. For me, this is a way of documenting what I have been exposed to and how my own thinking has developed. In that sense, my journaling is perhaps a bit unusual. It works for me though and I hope that it may be of interest to you as well.

To some extent, this journal is an experiment with Siegfried Kracauer's note that, "We must rid ourselves of the delusion that it is the major events which have the most decisive influence on us. We are much more deeply and continuously influenced by the tiny catastrophes that make up daily life" (Die Angestellten, in Schriften, vol. 1, 252). This blog is obviously public, yet it's not really created for anyone other than myself. If you find something that's of use or value, all the better! It does, after all, serve as one of my research resources and it may serve that purpose for you as well.

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