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).

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Published

2022-12-29

How to Cite

Westerink, H. (2022). The Subject of Desire and the Hermeneutics of Thoughts: Foucault’s Reading of Augustine and Cassian in Confessions of the Flesh. Foucault Studies, (33), 24–47. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.vi33.6799

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