Foucault and the Politics of Difference  

Oleh:

Trainor, Brian T.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Philosophy & Social Criticism vol. 29 no. 5 (Sep. 2003), page 563–580.
Topik: essentialism ; feminism ; Foucault ; legitimacy ; norms
Fulltext: 563PSC295.pdf (74.08KB)

Isi artikel

In this article I consider Foucault’s credentials as a postmodern ‘champion’ of the ‘politics of difference’. First, however, I note that the familiar expression ‘the postmodern politics of difference’ is in fact selfcontradictory, or at least it is a contradiction in terms (1) if we concede that the ongoing ethical/normative task confronting politics is the unifying or synthesizing of differences and (2) if we accept, with pleasure or dismay, that postmodernism exhibits a profoundly suspicious attitude towards this ethical task and towards moral principles and normative positions generally. I then ask whether or not Foucault adopted a normative position that could provide the necessary ethical support for a ‘politics of difference’. I argue that it is possible to find an element of genuine normativity in Foucault’s work (of the kind required for a ‘politics of difference’) by considering his views on the role of the intellectual, on the font of legitimacy, on grand theory and on essence. I also consider the work of some well-known recent commentators on Foucault (Judith Butler, William Connolly and John Ransom) who discuss this normative/political dimension of his work.

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