Thinking and Unthinking the Present: Philosophy after Foucault

Auteurs-es

  • Martin Saar Goethe University Frankfurt
  • Frieder Vogelmann University of Freiburg

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.i36.7231

Mots-clés :

(political) epistemology, knowledge, meta-philosophy, (critical) ontology, politics of truth, power, subjectivity

Résumé

What might a contemporary philosophical practice after and following Foucault look like? After briefly analyzing Foucault’s rather ambiguous stance towards academic philosophy in his posthumously published Le discours philosophique, we argue for continuing his historico-philosophical practice of diagnosing the present. This means taking up his analytic heuristic (with its three dimensions of power, knowledge and subjectivity) rather than his more concrete diagnostic concepts and the specific historical results they yield. We argue that the common methodological operation on each of the three axis is to shift the perspective from the given legitimacies, norms, identities and selves to their historical, conflict-ridden emergence. Practicing philosophy in this way allows developing Foucauldian contributions in two contemporary philosophical debates: critical ontology and political epistemology. While ontology and epistemology might seem surprising fields to work in for philosophers inspired by and critically loyal to Foucault, we attempt to dispel these reservations and illustrate the stakes in both debates, pointing to the urgent issues of ecological questions and of the problematization of untruths in politics respectively.

Bibliographies de l'auteur-e

Martin Saar, Goethe University Frankfurt

Martin Saar is professor for social philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt and a member of the board of the Institute for Social Research. His areas of interest refer to contemporary political and social philosophy and the history of political thought, with a special focus on Spinoza, Nietzsche, Foucault, Marxism, Critical Theory, and Post-structuralism.

Frieder Vogelmann, University of Freiburg

Frieder Vogelmann is professor for epistemology and theory of science at the University of Freiburg. His research focus is on political epistemology, including both theoretical investigations of basic concepts as well as concrete phenomena like the rise of untruth in politics or the role of scientific practices in democracy. A recent book on these topics is Die Wirksamkeit des Wissens. Eine politische Epistemologie (Suhrkamp 2022).

 

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Publié-e

2024-09-01

Comment citer

Saar, M., & Vogelmann, F. (2024). Thinking and Unthinking the Present: Philosophy after Foucault. Foucault Studies, (36), 31–54. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.i36.7231

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Special Issue: Foucault’s Legacy on Contemporary Thinking