The Subject of Desire and the Hermeneutics of Thoughts: Foucault’s Reading of Augustine and Cassian in Confessions of the Flesh

Authors

  • Herman Westerink Radboud University Nijmegen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.vi33.6799

Keywords:

Confessions of the Flesh, obedience, law, desire, subject, hermeneutics

Abstract

Although Foucault presented History of Sexuality Vol. 4: Confessions of the Flesh as a crucial part in the study of the genealogy of the subject of desire, Foucault’s analyses of early Christian doctrine and pastoral technologies do not support the claim that an analytic of the subject of desire was established in early Christianity. This can be shown through a reconstruction of his readings of Augustine and Cassian. Augustine’s doctrinal views of the human condition and the association of libido and disobedience to law are not accompanied by the production of technologies for the hermeneutics of desire. Cassian’s pastoral technologies of obedience and subjection to the will of the spiritual director are organized around the hermeneutics of thoughts, and they aim at establishing an inner detachment from misleading thoughts through examination of conscience. This reconstruction opens new trajectories for a genealogy of the subject of desire and for a genealogy of pastoral power and governmentality.

Author Biography

Herman Westerink, Radboud University Nijmegen

Herman Westerink (1968) is associated and endowed professor at the Center for Contemporary European Philosophy, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and he is scientific director of the Titus Brandsma Institute at the same university. He works in the fields of philosophy of religion and philosophical anthropology, and he has published many books and articles on Freudian psychoanalysis and contemporary philosophical reflections on religion and spirituality. Most recently, he published a book in Dutch on Foucault's History of Sexuality (De lichamen en hun lusten, 2019) and on Freud's theory of trauma, drives and repetition (Verleiding drift en herhaling, 2022, together with Philippe Van Haute).

References

Allen, Amy, “Foucault, Psychoanalysis, and Critique,” Angelaki. Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 23:2 (2018), 170-186. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2018.1451570

Arendt, Hannah, The Life of the Mind: Willing. New York: Harcourt, 1978.

Brown, Peter, Augustine of Hippo, Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969.

Brown, Peter, The Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christiani-ty. London/Boston: Faber and Faber, 1988.

Cassian, John, Conférences, ed. E. Pichery, Sources chrétiennes 42, 54 and 64. Paris: Cerf, 1955-1959.

Cassian, John, Institutions cénobitiques, ed. J.-C. Guy, Sources chrétiennes 109. Paris: Cerf, 1965.

Chevallier, Philippe, Michel Foucault et le christianisme. Lyon: Ens Éditions, 2011.

Chevallier, Philippe, “The Birth of Confessions of the Flesh: A Journey through the Archi-ves,” Maynooth Philosophical Papers 11 (2022): 55-73. https://doi.org/10.5840/mpp202222416

Clark, Elizabeth, “Foucault, the Fathers and Sex”, in Michel Foucault and Theology. The Poli-tics of Religious Experience, eds. J. Bernauer & J. Carrette, 39-56. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.

Clark, Elizabeth A., “L’Augustin de Foucault au risqué d’Augustin,” in Foucault, les Pères et le sexe: Autour des Aveux de la chair, eds. Ph. Büttgen, Ph. Chevallier, A. Colombo & A. Sforzini, 233-245. Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2021.

Clements, Niki Kasumi, Sites of the Ascetic Self. John Cassian and Christian Ethical Formation. Notre Dame: University of Note Dame Press, 2020.

Clements, Niki Kasumi, “Foucault’s Christianities,” Journal of the American Academy of Reli-gion 89:1 (2021), 1-40. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfab024

Colombo, Agustin, “What is a Desiring Man?,” Foucault Studies 29 (2021), 71-90. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.vi29.6215

Davidson, Arnold, The Emergence of Sexuality. Historical Epistemology and the Formulation of Concepts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.

Defert, Daniel, “Chronologie,” in M. Foucault, Dits et Écrits 1, 13-90. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.

Eribon, Didier, Michel Foucault. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.

Foucault, Michel, Abnormal. Lectures at the Collège de France 1974-1975. New York: Picador, 2003.

Foucault, Michel, “About the beginning of the hermeneutics of the self,” in M. Foucault, Religion and Culture, ed. J.R. Carrette, 158-181. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Foucault, Michel, “The Battle for Chastity,” in M. Foucault, Religion and Culture, ed. J.R. Carrette, 188-197. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Foucault, Michel, Confessions of the Flesh. The History of Sexuality 4. New York: Pantheon Books, 2021.

Foucault, Michel, The Hermeneutics of the Subject. Lectures at the Collège de France 1981-1982. New York: Picador, 2005.

Foucault, Michel, “Interview 1984,” in M. Foucault, Dits et Écrits 2, 1475-1486. Paris: Gal-limard, 2001.

Foucault, Michel, “Interview on the confession of the flesh,” in M. Foucault, Pow-er/Knowledge, ed. C. Gordon, 194-228. New York: Vintage Books, 1980.

Foucault, Michel, “Interview on the history of sexuality,” in M. Foucault, Power/Knowledge, ed. C. Gordon, 183-193. New York: Vintage Books, 1980.

Foucault, Michel, Mal faire, dire vrai. Fonction de l’aveu en justice. Cours de Louvain 1981. Chi-cago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Foucault, Michel, “Mon corps, ce papier, ce feu,” in M. Foucault, Dits et Écrits 1, 1113-1136. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.

Foucault, Michel, On the Government of the Living. Lectures at the Collège de France 1979-1980. New York: Picador, 2012.

Foucault, M. (2007) Security, Territory, Population. Lectures at the Collège de France 1977-1978. New York: Picador.

Foucault, Michel, “Sexualité et pouvoir,” in M. Foucault, Dits et Écrits 2, 552-570. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.

Foucault, Michel, “Sexuality and Solitude,” in M. Foucault, Religion and Culture, ed. J.R. Carrette, 182-187. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Foucault, Michel, Security, Territory, Population. Lectures at the Collège de France 1977-1978. New York: Picador, 2007.

Foucault, Michel, “Le sujet et le pouvoir,” in M. Foucault, Dits et Écrits 2, 1041-1062. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.

Foucault, Michel, The Use of Pleasure. The History of Sexuality 2. London: Penguin Books, 1992.

Foucault, Michel, The Will to Knowledge. The History of Sexuality 1. London: Penguin Books, 1998.

Gros, Frédéric, “Foreword to Confessions of the Flesh,” in M. Foucault, Confessions of the Flesh, vii-xiii. New York, Pantheon Books, 2021.

Harcourt, Bernard, “Foucault’s Keystone: Confessions of the Flesh: How the Fourth and Final Volume of The History of Sexuality Completes Foucault’s Critique of Modern Western Societies,” Foucault Studies 29 (2021), 48-70. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.vi29.6214

Karskens, Machiel, “Het regime van de bekentenissen. Foucaults Histoire de la sexualité 4: Les aveux de la chair,” Tijdschrift voor Filosofie 81:3 (2019), 559-581. https://doi.org/10.2143/TVF.81.3.3287040

Lamberigts, Mathijs, “A Critical Evaluation of Critiques of Augustine’s View of Sexuali-ty,” in Augustine and His Critics: Essays in Honour of Gerald Bonner, eds. R. Dodaro & G. Lawless, 176-197. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Lavaud, Laurent, “L’insurrection du sexe. Foucault lecteur de saint Augustin,” in Foucault, les Pères et le sexe: Autour des Aveux de la chair, eds. Ph. Büttgen, Ph. Chevallier, A. Co-lombo & A. Sforzini, 247-258. Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2021.

Lorenzini, Daniele, “The Emergence of Desire,” Critical Inquiry 45:2 (2019), 448-470. https://doi.org/10.1086/700997

McGushin, Edward, Foucault’s Askesis: An Introduction to the Philosophical Life. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2007.

Raffnsøe, Sverre, “Review Essay: Michel Foucault’s Confessions of the Flesh. The fourth volume of the History of Sexuality,” Foucault Studies 25 (2018), 393-421. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i25.5593

Sforzini, Arianna, “L’autre modernité du sujet. Foucault et la confession de la chair: les pratiques de subjectivation à l’âge des Réformes,” Revue de l’Histoire des Religions 235:3 (2018), 485-505. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26976537

Sforzini, Arianna, “Brève genealogie des Aveux de la chair,” in Foucault, les Pères et le sexe: Autour des Aveux de la chair, eds. Ph. Büttgen, Ph. Chevallier, A. Colombo & A. Sforzini (Eds.), 19-36. Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2021.

Stewart, Columba, Cassian the Monk. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Svensson, Manfred, “Augustine on Moral Conscience,” The Heythrop Journal 54:1 (2013), 42-54. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2265.2010.00595.x

Westerink, Herman, The Heart of Man’s Destiny. Lacanian Psychoanalysis and Early Refor-mation Thought. New York: Routledge, 2012.

Westerink, Herman, De lichamen en hun lusten. In het spoor van Foucaults Geschiedenis van de seksualiteit. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2020.

Downloads

Published

2022-12-29