Ethics and the ontology of freedom: problematization and responsiveness in Foucault and Deleuze

Forfattere

  • Erinn Cunniff Gilson University of North Florida

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i17.4254

Nøgleord:

Foucault, Deleuze, ethics, problematization, responsiveness, freedom, critique

Resumé

Both Foucault and Deleuze define ethics as a form of creative activity.  Yet, given certain ontological features indicated by both thinkers, ethics must be more than just creative and critical activity.  Forgoing a transcendent ground for ethics, the ontological condition of ethics – what Foucault calls liberté and Deleuze calls the plane of immanence – is an opening for change that makes possible normalizing modes of existence as well transformative ones.  In this context, ethics must be a practice that comprehends the dangers of such open-ended creation.  The concept of problematization, emphasized by Foucault and Deleuze, leads to an enhanced understanding of their conception of ethics.  On this understanding, ethics is a practice of problematization requiring a determination and assessment of the most pressing problems to which one must respond rather than attempt to solve once and for all.  Ethics is necessarily a responsive engagement with the problems of one’s present.

Forfatterbiografi

Erinn Cunniff Gilson, University of North Florida

Erinn Gilson is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of North Florida. She is the author of The Ethics of Vulnerability: a feminist analysis of social life and practice (Routledge, 2014). Her research centers on feminist theory, contemporary European philosophy, and social philosophy, and focuses on the nature of vulnerability, its relationship to responsibility and responsiveness, and the ethical and social implications of various modes of failure. Recently, she has been exploring these themes in relation to questions about food and sexuality.

Number 17: April 2014: Foucault and Deleuze

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Publiceret

2014-04-30

Citation/Eksport

Gilson, E. C. (2014). Ethics and the ontology of freedom: problematization and responsiveness in Foucault and Deleuze. Foucault Studies, (17), 76–98. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i17.4254

Nummer

Number 17: April 2014: Foucault and Deleuze

Sektion

Special Issue on Foucault and Deleuze

Licens

Authors retain copyright to their work, but assign the right of the first publication to Foucault Studies. The work is subject to a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, but despite these restrictions, authors can take for granted that Foucault Studies will permit articles published in Foucault Studies to be translated or reprinted in another format such as a book providing a full reference is made to Foucault Studies as the original place of publication.