For Foucault: Against Normative Political Theory

204 Pages·2018·1.75 MB·English

by  Mark G. E. Kelly

For Foucault
SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy
—————
Dennis J. Schmidt, editor
For Foucault
Against Normative Political Theory
Mark G. E. Kelly
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2018 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kelly, Mark G. E., author.
Title: For Foucault : against normative political theory / Mark G. E. Kelly.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2018] | Series:
SUNY series in contemporary continental philosophy | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016059960 (print) | LCCN 2017054330 (ebook) | ISBN
9781438467627 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438467610 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Political science—Philosophy. | Political ethics.
Classification: LCC JA71 (ebook) | LCC JA71 .K46 2017 (print) | DDC
320.01—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016059960
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Foucault and Political Philosophy 1
1. Marx: Anti-normative Critique 17
2. Lenin: The Invention of Party Governmentality 39
3. Althusser: A Failed Project to Denormativize Marxism 59
4. Deleuze: Denormativization as Norm 73
5. Rorty: Relativizing Normativity 95
6. Honneth: The Poverty of Critical Theory 109
7. Geuss: The Paradox of Realism 125
8. Foucault: The Lure of Neoliberalism 147
Conclusion: What Now? 169
Notes 175
Bibliography 181
Index 191

Acknowledgments
If there’s a single person who needs to be acknowledged here—other
than the spectral figure of Michel Foucault himself, the dedication of
the book to him appearing in the title—it’s Paul Patton. It perhaps does
not come through strongly enough in what follows that his defense of
Foucault against normativizing misreadings is seminal to the entire line
of thought this book represents. I also owe multiple other debts to him.
I must acknowledge Dimitris Vardoulakis, to whom I also owe much,
but in this particular case for encouraging me to take this book forward
and making introductions to editors. Dennis Schmidt, my colleague and
the editor of this series, also acted as an important conduit in bringing
this book to SUNY Press, as of course ultimately did my editor there,
Andrew Kenyon.
I acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council in
the form of a Future Fellowship, during which I prepared this book for
publication. This book has been long in the writing, however, predating
in large part this fellowship. The piece on Rorty dates in its core to 2002.
My work on Lenin dates in its beginnings to 2007. The piece on Marx
and ethics I began in 2009. My work on Geuss and that on Patton dates
mostly to 2011, that on Althusser to 2012, that on Honneth to 2013, and
that on Deleuze to 2014.
Particular chapters require their specific acknowledgments. The gen-
esis of the chapter on Rorty dates from a class at Sydney University given
by Paul Redding in 2002, and the direction of it certainly begins with
Paul’s teaching.
Yet another person to whom I am overwhelmingly indebted in
life is Jessica Whyte, in the particular case of this book for her help and
encouragement in relation to the Althusser chapter.

vii
viii Acknowledgments
The Deleuze chapter was initially written with the encouragement
of Jeremy Gilbert and Andrew Goffey, to each of whom I also owe other
debts dating back several years. I owe thanks for the careful reading of
and comments on the chapter by graduate students at the University
of Oregon, to Nicolae Morar for penetrating questions and suggestions
for further investigation, and to Colin Koopman for orchestrating these
encounters.
The chapter on Honneth stems from my involvement since 2012
with the Sydney Recognition Workgroup, which is to say primarily with
Jean-Philippe Deranty and Heikki Ikäheimo. I have much for which I
should thank them. I was encouraged in bringing the chapter to fruition
by Danielle Petherbridge, and should thank anonymous referees for Critical
Horizons for their feedback.
I also acknowledge the provocatively unsympathetic and uncom-
prehending audiences I had when talking about opposing normativity at
the Australasian Association of Philosophy conference at UNSW in 2010,
the Philosophy Department of Cardiff University the same year, and the
Sydney Recognition Workgroup’s 2013 seminars at UNSW.
An earlier version of Chapter 3 previously appeared as a chapter
entitled “Foucault against Marxism: Althusser beyond Althusser” in Jernej
Habjan and Jessica Whyte (eds.), (Mis)readings of Marx in Continental Phi-
losophy, 2014, Palgrave Macmillan. An earlier version of Chapter 5 pre-
viously appeared as an article entitled “Discipline Is Control: Foucault
contra Deleuze” in New Formations 84/85, 2015. An alternative version
of Chapter 6 appeared as an article entitled “Foucault contra Honneth:
Resistance or Recognition?” in Critical Horizons, 2017.
Introduction
Foucault and Political Philosophy
With his critique of ideology applied to the bourgeois constitutional
state and with his sociological dissolution of the theoretical basis
for natural rights, Marx so enduringly discredited . . . both the idea
of legality and the intention of natural law, that the link between
natural law and revolution has been broken ever since. The parties
of an internationalized civil war have divided this heritage between
themselves with fateful clarity: the one side has taken up the heritage
of revolution, the other the ideology of natural law.
—Habermas 1978, 1171
This book is for, and not about, Michel Foucault. I will refer to him
often in what follows, and occasionally (particularly in the final chapter,
and in this introduction) will slip into Foucault scholarship, but I have
already written several books on Foucault, so this one will deal primarily
with other figures. Similarly but conversely, this book is against, and not
about, normative political theory. This object too will heave into view, but
for the most part the book deals with terrain in between Foucault and
normative political theory, with a series of political thinkers who contest
in various ways the normative stakes of political thought, but retain a
normative political-theoretic dimension that Foucault lacks and rejects.
I explore and critique their work from a Foucauldian direction, with a
particular focus where applicable on their commentary on Foucault.
While I think most readers will readily have some understanding
of the term “political theory,” the meaning of the term “normative” is
trickier. This latter term is bandied about in academic circles with abandon,

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