The Borders of Things

Foucault Redux

In this Chronicle of Higher Education article, Richard Wolin offers a broad outline of Foucault's project, ending not with the bald French philosophe we all know and love but with the possible reassessment in Foucault's later life and work of that nasty idea called humanism. Apparantly, according to the author, F realized the crucial need for an idea of the human as a positive political force, and began easing back on his famous death of man positions.

Of course, as Foucault himself famously argued in "What is an Author?", this does not change the reception of Foucaults work in academia; his name will still "function" as a marker for all of the powerful critiques of the human which make up the bulk of his work. Just as the writings of "Marx" may be opposed at points with the various manifestations of "marxism," so it should not be surprising that Foucault would be at odds with the many who invoke his name.

I do think that the following points can be scored, however: as Wolin points out, the fact that Foucault shifted his thinking fairly dramatically over the course of his career (which almost anyone who has studied him knows) reveals a more fluid and versatile intellect that was not bound to a particular ideological or theoretical paradigm. Whether your hero is Marx and Foucault or Aristotle and Leo Strauss, "disciples" don't often get you very far. That can be a fine place to start, but, as is often the case with the masters themselves, it's probably a good idea not to end up there.