Foucault and Wittgenstein: Practical Critique and Democratic Politics

Authors

  • Lotar Rasiński DSW University of Lower Silesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.i36.7226

Keywords:

Michel Foucault, Ludwig Wittgenstein, practical critique, democratic politics, public language, confession, subjectivity

Abstract

This paper aims to explore a set of convergence points between Foucault’s and Wittgenstein’s perspectives on philosophy and language, integrating them into a mutually complementary approach that I term ‘practical critique.’ The concept of ‘practical critique’ is founded on three pillars: the understanding of philosophy and language as critical practices, the public nature of language, and confessional subjectivity. I examine these three areas of convergence across three subsequent sections. In the concluding section, I discuss how this perspective can be fertile for understanding democratic politics today. I argue that all three pillars predominantly support democratic politics over any other political form. To explain that, I engage with the debate on the language of democratic theory and the potential expansion of the understanding of the public sphere. The notion of the public that emerges from this perspective offers an alternative or supplementation to the classical Habermasian view of the public sphere and democratic theory. It is envisioned as an open space of discursive multiplicity and diversity, where practices of exclusion or oppression can be made visible, challenged, and resisted.

Author Biography

Lotar Rasiński, DSW University of Lower Silesia

Lotar Rasiński is an Associate Professor at the DSW University of Lower Silesia in Wroclaw.  In his research and numerous publications, he focuses on political philosophy, philosophy of education, theory of discourse, critical theory, and the methodology of social sciences. His books include Discourse and Power. Exploring Political Agonism (in Polish, 2010), Language, Discourse, Society. Linguistic Turn in Social Philosophy (in Polish, ed., 2009), Marxism and Education. International Perspectives on Theory and Action (ed. with D. Hill and K. Skordoulis, 2018) and Following Marx and Wittgenstein. Social Criticism without Critical Theory (in Polish; 2012), for which he received the prestigious Award of the Prime Minister of Poland (2014). He was a visiting fellow at the New School for Social Research in New York (2000), the University of California at Berkeley (2002), and Palacky University in Olomouc (2019-2022). Between 2019 and 2024, he was a PI of the international project Wittgenstein and Democratic Politics, and his co-edited book, Wittgenstein and Democratic Politics: Language, Dialogue and Political Forms of Life, will be published by Routledge later this year.

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Published

2024-09-01

How to Cite

Rasiński, L. (2024). Foucault and Wittgenstein: Practical Critique and Democratic Politics. Foucault Studies, (36), 420–442. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.i36.7226

Issue

Section

Special Issue: Foucault’s Legacy in Contemporary Thinking