Michel Foucault

Another installment in my Anthropology series follows. Michel Foucault theorized on a multitude of issues. I only provide a basic summary of my theoretical readings. Comment if you would like some clarification. Better yet, go to Borders and pick up one of his books. You'll find him in the philosophy section.

Basically, Foucault believes you have to refuse analyses from the symbolic and structural. You must figure things in terms of genealogy of relations of force, strategic developments and tactics. Societies have relations of power, not meaning. History has no meaning, so there is no need for interpretation. Dialectic interpretation is evasion of the reality of conflict. (thesis-antithesis-synthesis) Semiology is evasion of the violent character of reality. (symbolic anthropology)
Power, in Foucault’s view, is posed in either juridical terms (sovereignty) or terms of state apparatus (Marxist view). Historically, people had only denounced mechanisms of power. The mechanics of power were never analyzed. Analysis of power has to begin on the basis of daily struggles of ordinary individuals (phenomenological). This is done through his genealogical approach. A scientist must historically contextualize the event. This can account for the formation of knowledge, discourse, and other things without reference to the transcendence of the static.
There are many obstacles to this approach. History tends to be perceived ideologically, repressively, and economically. Ideology cannot be used without circumspection. It always stands in opposition to another aspect of truth. It refers to a particular order of a subject. And it stands as secondary to some aspect that functions as its infrastructure. Repression is inadequate in discovering the precise productive aspect of power. It’s only one, limiting aspect of power.
Foucault also has ideas about the concepts of sovereignty and state. He finds them synonymous. When evoking these terms, we speak of law. If power depends on the state apparatus, we perceive the laws as repressive. (police = punitive) In actuality, power extends beyond the state. The state apparatus itself operates on other power relations. (I’m too paranoid to hypothesize concretely) As for the dichotomy of state power vs. revolutions, revolutions are as diverse as power relations. Some even occur against a state but leave the actual power structure untouched.
Foucault’s ideas of surveillance are particularly interesting. Surveillance began as new technologies increased the ability of rulers to take census of the population in the 17th and 18th centuries. Rulers began to grasp the diversity within their domain and manipulated their laws to promote social production and service. To briefly summarize his concept called, “Panopticon,” the possibility of observation alters behavior. You think you are being watched, so you behave appropriately.

Foucault also discusses the politicization of the intellectual. He believes the relationships between evolutionist and socialist thought; and the ambiguous effects of evolutionism caused the “specialist” to rise as a political figure. (deposing the writer who encompassed many disciplines and related them in broad terms.) Also, Intellectuals are linked to the functioning of truth. He describes the political economy of truth as centered on a form of scientific discourse, subject to economic and political incitement, the object of diffusion and consumption, produced and transmitted under control of exclusive apparatuses, and the issue of debate and confrontation. He offers a couple propositions about truth. It is understood as a system of ordered procedures for the production and operation of statements. (truth produces definitive concepts). In addition, truth is linked circularly with systems of power. (it’s manipulated) Foucault also goes into the political problems of intellectuals. He says they shouldn’t just criticize or protect current truths, they should ascertain the ideas of forming new ones. Don’t attempt to alter people’s consciousness; transform the political, economic, and institutional regime of truth. Don’t attempt only to emancipate truth, but detach the power of truth from forms of hegemony. (social, economic, and cultural)

Primary source: Paul Erickson and Liam Murphy, editors. Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory. New York: Broadview Press. 2001.