Eva said,
BTW, I was going to suggest something similar to what Mary did about the
Foucault quote that Nate provided as support for attributing a desire for
objectivity to Foucault -- that F is suggesting an orientation towards a
conception of power which takes a view on what is the goal, and what is
tactically efficient in a field of multiple and fluid power relations.
Not very objective in the sense the word has in the subjective-objective
dichotomy, or? ... (the same confusion of terms has been known to arise in
the context of the Object in activity theory.)
Eva,
I would say neither. Here's why. Foucault is not a rationalist so I would
find it diificult to attribute his reference to objectivity in the form of
an object or goal. Captalism, liberalism, bourgeois society were accidents
of history. On several occasions he states they (bourgeois society) wern't
smart enough. In general he does not give much credit to those that have or
hold onto power/knowledge. You have various projects that "unrationally"
came together to create dominant discourses. There are certain projects to
come about that may be oppressive (prison for example) yet they take on a
life of their own that go beyond the original intention although with very
normalizing, dominant effect.
Second, the subject/object binary is interesting with Foucault. When he
reinforces the notion of objectivity it is to do away with subjectivity
altogether. This is not akin to positivism or anything like that but rather
the biggest crime of modern western society is its normalizing and
individualizing.
One example to ponder that I think describes Foucault's emphasis on
productive power and objectivity nicely. As some are aware there has been
as issue in New York and elsewhere with police brutality. One being if one
is an African American male walking down the street you are stopped and
frisked because of the color of your skin. This is argued by the police as
needed for safety concerns because the black man may have a gun. Hilary
Clinton thought of a solution to this that had the support of some in the
African American community. It seems technology is available in which the
police could have an instrument that would let them know if an individual
was carrying a piece or not. If they could use this technology black men
would no longer need to be needlessly harassed and searched.
A Foucaultion analytics of power would approach this deployment objectively
in that it really does not matter if this is being proposed to correct a
current ill or is liberatory in nature. The fact that members of the African
American community support the idea is a mute point. Like the prison it has
a certain historical specifity, but in the long run that doesn't matter.
Such a practice would merge with other historical instances and become an
apparatus of power.
But Foucault also said "this isn't what I think, but rather what I think
might be possible to think".
Nate
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