Normativity and Normalization

Authors

  • Dianna Taylor John Carroll University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i7.2636

Abstract

This article illustrates ways in which the concepts of the norm and normativity are implicated in relations of power. Specifically, I argue that these concepts have come to function in a normalizing manner. I outline Michel Foucault’s thinking on the norm and normalization and then provide an overview of Jürgen Habermas’s thinking on the norm and normativity in order to show that Habermas’s conceptualizations of the norm and normativity are not, as he posits, necessary foundations for ethics and politics, but in fact simply one philosophical approach among many. Uncritically accepting a Habermasian framework therefore produces normalizing effects and inhibits alternative and potentially emancipatory thinking about ethics and politics. Having problematized the requirement of normative foundations as it is currently articulated, I conclude by examining the emancipatory potential of a particular aspect of Foucault’s work for the practice of philosophy.

Author Biography

Dianna Taylor, John Carroll University

Dianna Taylor is Associate Professor of Philosophy at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. Her research focuses on twentieth century continental philosophy, especially the work of Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt, and feminist theory. She is the author of articles on Foucault and Arendt, and co-editor of Feminism and the Final Foucault (University of Illinois Press, 2004) and Feminist Politics: Identity, Difference, Agency (Rowman and Littlefield, 2007). She is currently working on a book project which analyzes Foucault’s location within the western philosophical tradition.

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Published

2009-09-07

How to Cite

Taylor, D. (2009). Normativity and Normalization. Foucault Studies, (7), 45–63. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i7.2636

Issue

Number 7, September 2009

Section

Articles

License

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