Michel Foucault’s work analyzes the functioning of power as a field of relations within a set of social practices involving, characteristically, sexuality, policing, punishment, race, and mental illness, among other things. He is particularly interested to describe the development of these practices in order to make clear how their domains were created as the subjects of scientific discourse and in terms of which truth claims could be made. In this course, we track the development of Foucault’s theorizing the power relations that structure social practices and the truth claims that can be made about their domains. We end by considering Foucault’s late turn to ethics and the philosophical practices of the ancient world in light of his interest in the complex relations between power and truth.
- Teacher: Daniel Wack