We continue with Michel Foucault's "The Ethics of the Concern of the Self as a Practice of Freedom" (1984) and add Susan Sontag's "On Style" (1965). After the departure of our guest about halfway through this part, we wrap up with thoughts on all the readings, including Jacques Derrida's "The Animal That Therefore I Am" (1999) p. 1–16, and our guest Shahidha's book Dressed: A Continue Reading …
Ep. 245: Fashion (Derrida, Foucault) w/ Shahidha Bari (Part One)
On Jacques Derrida's "The Animal That Therefore I Am" (1999) p. 1–16, Michel Foucault's "The Ethics of the Concern of the Self As A Practice of Freedom" (1984), and our guest Shahidha's book Dressed: A Philosophy of Clothes (2020) p. 1–22, 205–217. Much historical philosophy takes appearance to be the mere covering to be ignored in favor of the soul, essence or content Continue Reading …
Ep. 245: Fashion (Derrida, Foucault, Sontag) w/ Shahidha Bari (Citizen Edition)
On Jacques Derrida's "The Animal That Therefore I Am" (1999) p. 1–16, Michel Foucault's "The Ethics of the Concern of the Self As A Practice of Freedom" (1984), Susan Sontag's "On Style" (1965), and our guest Shahidha's book Dressed: A Philosophy of Clothes (2020) p. 1–22, 205–217. Much historical philosophy takes appearance to be the mere covering to be ignored in favor of Continue Reading …
Ep. 200: Kant/Mendelssohn/Foucault on Enlightenment (Part Two)
Continuing on "What Is Enlightenment" by Immanuel Kant (1784), "On Enlightening the Mind" by Moses Mendelssohn (1784), and "What Is Enlightenment" by Michael Foucault (1984). We finish up Kant (the courage to know!) and lay out the Mendelssohn (cultivation vs. enlightenment) and Foucault (ironically heroize the present!). Will this conversation enlighten you? Who Continue Reading …
Ep. 200: Kant/Mendelssohn/Foucault on Enlightenment (Part One)
On "What Is Enlightenment" by Immanuel Kant (1784), "On Enlightening the Mind" by Moses Mendelssohn (1784), and "What Is Enlightenment" by Michael Foucault (1984). At the end of the historical period known as the Enlightenment, a Berlin newspaper asked what exactly that is, and Kant and Mendelssohn both responded (neither having read the other's answer). According to Kant, Continue Reading …
Ep. 200: Kant/Mendelssohn/Foucault on Enlightenment (Citizen Edition)
On "What Is Enlightenment" by Immanuel Kant (1784), "On Enlightening the Mind" by Moses Mendelssohn (1784), and "What Is Enlightenment" by Michael Foucault (1984). Participate in the survey to help us plan our 10 year anniversary PEL Live event! At the end of the historical period known as the Enlightenment, a Berlin newspaper asked what exactly that is, and Kant and Continue Reading …
Ep. 189: Authorial Intent (Barthes, Foucault, Beardsley, et al) (Part Two)
Continuing on "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes (1967) and "What Is an Author?" by Michel Foucault (1969), and finally getting to “Against Theory” by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982). What could it mean to say that a text, once written, speaks itself, that it no longer really has an author? We get into the specific critiques Foucault has of the cult of Continue Reading …
Ep. 189: Authorial Intent (Barthes, Foucault, Beardsley, et al) (Part One)
On four essays about how to interpret artworks: “The Intentional Fallacy” by W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley (1946), "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes (1967), "What Is an Author?" by Michel Foucault (1969), and “Against Theory” by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982). When you're trying to figure out what, say, a poem means, isn't the best way to do that Continue Reading …
Ep. 189: Authorial Intent (Barthes, Foucault, Beardsley, et al) (Citizen Edition)
On four essays about how to interpret artworks: “The Intentional Fallacy” by W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley (1946), "The Death of the Author" by Roland Barthes (1967), "What Is an Author?" by Michel Foucault (1969), and “Against Theory” by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982). When you're trying to figure out what, say, a poem means, isn't the best way to do that Continue Reading …
Descartes’s Horror?
At Zero Books, we aim to be unconventional. We aim, as Tariq Goddard wrote in the founding manifesto, to be "intellectual without being academic," to be critically engaged and theoretical without being boring, and to resist the "blandly consensual culture in which we live," but it's always a challenge. At the beginning of the year, during my second month as publisher and Continue Reading …
A Wealth of Not School Offerings in June
Summer has arrived, and in case you can't decide whether to take Kant's Critique of Pure Reason or Franz Kafka's The Trial to the beach with you, let me help: take them both and be prepared for Not School in June. Thinking of taking summer classes? Think better of it. That's expensive, and for a measly $5 a month you can gorge yourself on philosophy right here at The Continue Reading …
Michel Foucault and the Birth of Modern Medicine
[This is a post from Kevin Jobe, friend of Law Ware and the podcast. It is part of a longer paper which PEL Citizens can download here.] i] Introduction. "This book is about space, about language, and about death; it is about the act of seeing, the gaze." (ix) So begins The Birth of the Clinic: an Archaeology of Medical Perception by Michel Foucault. As he often begins his Continue Reading …
Foucault’s Discipline and Punish is Book of the Month at Philosophy Forums
I've been chatting on and off with Scott at Philosophy Forums to try to synchronize one of our episodes with the Book of the Month over there, and despite my basically having given up on doing this as too hard to coordinate, I see that the book for February is Discipline and Punish, which we recently covered. So head over there if you'd like and participate in that Continue Reading …
Lila Notes, Pt. 3: Pirsig’s Teleological Hierarchy
In Pt. 2, I described Pirsig's notion of dynamic vs. static quality, which should sound a lot like naturalistic moral intuitionism as discussed in our Hume/Smith episode. All there is is people (or, more widely for Pirsig, any being that is capable of reacting affirmatively or negatively to anything: judging agents, we might want to call them), and morality can only be founded Continue Reading …
Žižek on Foucault, Descartes and Madness
OK, so this isn't the easiest thing to read (after seeing numerous Žižek videos, it looks to me that he writes like he talks like he thinks, which is pretty fluid, making connections between things and not necessarily driving through focused theses...) but a little time spent on it yields some interesting points. For some context, Katie noted in the episode that Discipline Continue Reading …
Historyish Podcast Profile of Foucault
In looking for Foucault supplementary audio, I ran across a fairly new podcast, "Historyish," which appears to be run by people involved with the University of Warwick and the Postgraduate Forum for the History of Medicine. Their October 2011 episode on Foucault can be found here; the page itself includes some of the biographical information read on the episode. The first 20 Continue Reading …
Foucault on Freedom and Domination
We opened the discussion in the Foucault podcast with the question, “are we really free?” I’d just like to take a minute to clarify this question and to raise some problems for Foucault. First of all, there’s certainly a sense in which Foucault never denied that we’re free. He even says that “freedom is the ontological condition of power,” meaning that power only works to Continue Reading …
What to Do About Behaving Badly
This is an obvious cross-reference for this group—indeed, many of you likely already read it. Peter Singer and Agata Sagan have an column in NYTimes' "The Stone" today called "Are We Ready for a Morality Pill?" They present the conundrum of the how to factor in our growing understanding of the effect of brain chemistry not just on our mood and temperment, but also our Continue Reading …
Rick Roderick on Foucault
Long time listeners and readers know that I'm a fan of Rick Roderick. For those who don't know, he was from Texas, got his degree in philosophy from UT and taught at various places including Duke. He was a down home type who became famous to philosophiles through a couple of lecture series he published through The Teaching Company. (Home also to Mark's crush Robert Solomon) Continue Reading …
History of the Prison
Check out this video. It is a brief history of prisons, but also focuses on the use of technology in and the architecture of prisons. It makes the indirect but clear point that surveiller goes hand in hand with technology. There's a nice spot right at the beginning where the Commissioner of the NYC Dept. of Corrections talks about how military technology is being employed in Continue Reading …