Foucault, Ethical Self-concern and the Other

In his later writings on ethics Foucault argues that rapport à soi – the relationship to oneself – is what gives meaning to our commitment to ‘moral behaviour’. In the absence of rapport à soi, Foucault believes, ethical adherence collapses into obedience to rules (‘an authoritarian structure’). I make a case, in broadly Levinasian terms, for saying that the call of ‘the other’ is fundamental to ethics. This prompts the question whether rapport à soi fashions an ethical subject who is unduly self-concerned. Here we confront two apparently irreconcilable pictures of the source of moral demands. I describe one way of trying to reconcile them from a Foucaultian perspective, and I note the limitations in the attempt. I also try to clear away what I think to be a misunderstanding on Foucault’s part about what is at stake in the choice between these pictures. To clarify my critique of Foucault, I also relate it to a similar recent critique of virtue ethics by Thomas Hurka.

Foucault, Feminism, and Informed Choice

The purpose of this paper is to show that the standard notion of informed choice is unacceptable and must be replaced. To do so, I examine Foucault's analysis of people in contemporary society, drawing attention to the ways power relations act upon us, and to the possibility of resistance. I show how feminist moral theory can be enriched by Foucault's analysis. Applying this new understanding of people and moral theory to an analysis of informed choice, I claim that the standard notion of informed choice is unacceptable, in part because it relies on a false conception of people. Its “necessary” features—intention, understanding, and absence of controlling influences—are much more difficult, if not impossible, to obtain than proponents of the standard notion believe. I end by offering direction for creating a new, Foucault-inspired, feminist theory of informed choice.     

Foucault, counselling and the aesthetics of existence

Michel Foucault was drawn late in life to study the 'arts of the self' in Greco-Roman culture as a basis, following Nietzsche, for what he called an 'aesthetics of existence'. By this, he meant a set of creative and experimental processes and techniques by which an individual turns him- or herself into a work of art. For Nietzsche, it was above all the figure of the musician that best represented the mode of creative self-transformation, although he also talked of the philosopher-artist. By contrast, Foucault in his famous essay 'Writing the self' emphasised the writer and writing. Yet, at the same time, he was also to question the notion of the author and the author-function. This article explores the relations between counselling and Foucault's notion of the aesthetics of existence by focusing on processes of ethical self-constitution—an aesthetic 'sculpting' of the self—and, in particular, the ways in which we come to shape our lives through the capacity of choice-making. The article begins by emphasising the consistency of an approach from an 'aesthetics of existence' to Foucault's life and his relations to questions of the self in the history of madness, before considering the development of such an approach for counselling.     

Freud, Oedipus and the Hebrew Bible

The current paper examines the question of why Freud employed Greek rather than Hebrew foundation legends, specifically the story of Oedipus, as a basis for psychoanalysis, Freud's choice of Oedipus emanates from his deterministic view of the universe, paralleling the Greek rather that the Biblical story of creation. In the Biblical account God precedes and creates nature with no sign of an Oedipal conflict. In the Greek account, nature precedes the gods and the Oedipal conflict is inherent. Freud's choice has implications for his view of human psychology.     

Foucault,Feminism, and Sex Crimes

In 1977 Michel Foucault contemplated the idea of punishing rape only as a crime of violence, while in 1978 he argued that non‐coercive sex between adults and minors should be decriminalized entirely. Feminists have consistently criticized these suggestions by Foucault. This paper argues that these feminist responses have failed to sufficiently understand the theoretical motivations behind Foucault's statements on sex‐crime legislation reform, and will offer a new feminist appraisal of Foucault's suggestions.     

Freud, psychoanalysis and the psychosomatic problem

According to the author an unbroken hallucination of the pleasure principle is underlying the vision of mankind as in biotechnical medicine as well as in a concept of science that is reduced to technical progress. Psychosomatics is to overcome the false rationality of such thought.