Foucault amongst the theologians

This article critically examines some of the theological and Neo-Orthodox readings of Foucault. An exploration of some key texts reveals limitations in, e.g., Milbank’s account, and is developed further through an examination of Sharon Welch’s discussion of feminist liberation theology. A deeper engagement with Foucault’s work emerges, clarifying issues of power, disclosure, truth and ‘agonism’. The paper proposes that Foucault’s work is not an expression of ‘nihilism’ but rather is important for the self-critique and integrity of theology.     

Foucault and ethical universality

Foucault's resistance to a universalist ethics, especially in his later writings, is well-known. Foucault thinks that ethical universalism presupposes a shared human essence, and that this presupposition makes it a straitjacket, an attempt to force people to conform to an externally imposed 'pattern'. Foucault's hostility may be warranted for one - perhaps the usual - conception of ethical universality. But there are other conceptions of ethical universality that are not vulnerable to Foucault's criticism, and that are ethically and culturally important. I set out one such conception, and show why it matters. Paul Patton has argued that Foucault is best read as grounding his analyses of power in a 'conception of human being' traceable to Nietzsche. I explain why this does not amount to the ethical universalism that I sketch below.     

Foucault and Familial Power

This paper provides an overview of Michel Foucault's continually changing observations on familial power, as well as the feminist‐Foucauldian literature on the family. It suggests that these accounts offer fragments of a genealogy of the family that undermine any all‐encompassing or transhistorical account of the institution. Approaching the family genealogically, rather than seeking a single model of power that can explain it, shows that far from this institution being a quasi‐natural formation or a bedrock of unassailable values, it is in fact a continually contested fiction that masks its own histories of becoming.     

论福柯与遥远的古希腊时代

福柯区分了司法型权力和规训型权力.他指出规训型权力建构了一个涉及社会各方面的严格"规范".人们在这种"规范"下,虽然看似有一系列的自由,但是实质依旧无法获得自主性.因此,我们需要重申古代精神.在古代的语境下,各个层级和身处不同年龄阶段的公民,对自己有严格的规范.他们表面上是被束缚的,但是在这种自我约束后,却是由于他们真正的自由.并能由此发展出一种健康的社会构架.     

Foucault Goes to Weight Watchers

This article argues that commercial weight‐loss organizations appropriate and debase the askeses—practices of care of the self—that Michel Foucault theorized, increasing members’ capacities at the same time as they encourage participation in ever‐tightening webs of power. Weight Watchers, for example, claims to promote self‐knowledge, cultivate new capacities and pleasures, foster self‐care in face of gendered exploitation, and encourage wisdom and flexibility. The hupomnemata of these organizations thus use asketic language to conceal their implication in normalization.