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5 - The Two Faces of Michel Foucault

from Part I - Intellectual Sources and Disciplinary Engagements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2023

By
Paolo Heywood
Edited by
James Laidlaw
James Laidlaw
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter examines the extensive influence of the thought of Michel Foucault on the development of the anthropology of ethics. In doing so it treats a classic question that has preoccupied biographers of Foucault and chroniclers of his philosophy, as well as both advocates and critics of the anthropology of ethics, namely the nature of the relationship between power and freedom. Siding with those who have seen more continuity than rupture in the shifts of emphasis within Foucault’s oeuvre, it argues that we should as far as possible seek to understand the different stages of Foucault’s work as complementary, rather than contradictory: as providing us with different viewpoints from which to view a context or question, rather than mutually exclusive descriptions.

Keywords

Foucaultanthropologypowerethicsfreedom
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics , pp. 130 - 154
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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