The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the Collège de France 1982–1983 (Michel Foucault, Lectures at the Collège de France) - Hardcover

Foucault, M.; Davidson, Arnold I.; Burchell, Graham

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1403986665 ISBN 13: 9781403986665

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

Synopsis

The lectures given by Michel Foucault in 1983 at the Collège de France launch an inquiry into the notion of parrēsia and continue his rereading of ancient philosophy. Through the study of this notion of truth-telling, of speaking out freely, Foucault re-examines Greek citizenship, showing how the courage of truth forms the forgotten ethical basis of Athenian democracy. He describes how, with the decline of the city-states, the courage of truth is transformed and becomes directed personally to the Prince's soul, giving us a new reading of Plato's seventh letter. The platonic figure of the philosopher king, the condemnation of writing, and Socrates' rejection of political involvement are some of the many topics of ancient philosophy revisited in Foucault's lectures.

In the midst of brilliant interpretations of Greek tragedy, political theory, and philosophy, Foucault allows us to rethink the role, the significance, and the transformation of practices of parrēsia from antiquity to the present. Moreover, in these lectures Foucault constructs a figure of the philosopher in which he recognized himself and with this rereading of Greek thinkers he assures his own placement in philosophical modernity, problematizes his own function, and defines his mode of thinking and being.

'Modern philosophy is a practice which tests its reality in its relationship to politics. It is a practice which finds its function of truth in the criticism of illusion, deception, trickery, and flattery. Finally, it is a practice which finds the object of its exercise in the transformation of the subject by himself and of the subject by the other. Philosophy as exteriority with regard to a politics which constitutes its test of reality, philosophy as critique of a domain of illusion which challenges it to constitute itself as true discourse, and philosophy as ascesis, that is to say, as constitution of the subject by himself, are what constitute the modern mode of being of philosophy'.

About this title

Review:

"The publications of Foucault's lectures at the Collège de France have given us an incredible view of the development of his thinking. This new volume, The Government of Self and Others, shows us how Foucault was conceiving the relation between the self and the others who make up the political, how fearless speech (parrēsia) is at the center of both, and how parrēsia defines, for Foucault, philosophical action itself. Thanks to these lectures, we see Foucault as the great thinker he is."
- Leonard Lawlor, Sparks Professor of Philosophy, Penn State University, USA.

 
"The publication of Foucault's lectures is momentous not only because they deepen our understanding of his books and essays, but because they dramatically change the way we read him. This study of the ancient practice of parresia – philosophical truth-telling – forces us to abandon the view that his late thought was a turn away from politics.
The key question in these lectures is the relationship between philosophy and politics: their necessary dependence, but impossible coincidence. The political significance of philosophy was an acute problem for Foucault throughout his life. It remains a definitive question today for anyone concerned with the future of Western political thought and practice."
- Johanna Oksala, University of Dundee, UK.
 
 
 
 
 

Book Description:

Original work by Foucault available in English for the first time

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1403986665
• ISBN 13: 9781403986665
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 419