Table Of ContentFoucault’s Legacy
Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy
Series Editor: James Fieser, University of Tennessee at Martin, USA
Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy is a major monograph series
from Continuum. The series features fi rst-class scholarly research
monographs across the fi eld of Continental philosophy. Each work
makes a major contribution to the fi eld of philosophical research.
Adorno’s Concept of Life, Alastair Morgan
Badiou, Marion and St Paul, Adam Miller
Being and Number in Heidegger’s Thought, Michael Roubach
Deleuze and Guattari, Fadi Abou-Rihan
Deleuze and the Genesis of Representation, Joe Hughes
Deleuze and the Unconscious, Christian Kerslake
Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New, edited by Simon O’Sullivan
and Stephen Zepke
Derrida, Simon Morgan Wortham
Derrida and Disinterest, Sean Gaston
The Domestication of Derrida, Lorenzo Fabbri
Encountering Derrida, edited by Simon Morgan Wortham and Allison Weiner
Foucault’s Heidegger, Timothy Rayner
Foucault’s Legacy, edited by C. G. Prado
Gadamer and the Question of the Divine, Walter Lammi
Heidegger and a Metaphysics of Feeling, Sharin N. Elkholy
Heidegger and Aristotle, Michael Bowler
Heidegger and Philosophical Atheology, Peter S. Dillard
Heidegger Beyond Deconstruction, Michael Lewis
Heidegger, Politics and Climate Change, Ruth Irwin
Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy, Jason Powell
Heidegger’s Early Philosophy, James Luchte
The Irony of Heidegger, Andrew Haas
Levinas and Camus, Tal Sessler
Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology, Kirk M. Besmer
Nietzsche’s Ethical Theory, Craig Dove
Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, edited by James Luchte
The Philosophy of Exaggeration, Alexander Garcia Düttmann
Sartre’s Phenomenology, David Reisman
Who’s Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari? Gregg Lambert
Žižek and Heidegger, Thomas Brockelman
Foucault’s Legacy
Edited by
C. G. Prado
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© C. G. Prado and Contributors 2009
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-10: 1-8470-6595-3 (Hardback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-8470-6595-7 (Hardback)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Foucault’s legacy/edited by C. G. Prado.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-8470-6595-7
1. Foucault, Michel, 1926–1984. I. Prado, C. G. II. Title.
B2430.F724F74 2009
194–dc22 2008034111
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group
Contents
Contributors vi
Editor’s introduction 1
C. G. Prado
1. The temporality of power 6
David Couzens Hoy
2. A philosophical shock: Foucault reading Nietzsche,
reading Heidegger 19
Babette E. Babich
3. Foucault, Hegel, and the death of man 42
Tom Rockmore
4. After knowledge and liberty: Foucault and the new pragmatism 68
Barry Allen
5. Two uses of genealogy: Michel Foucault and Bernard Williams 90
Colin Koopman
6. Weakening ontology through actuality: Foucault and
Vattimo 109
Santiago Zabala
7. Foucault, Secularization theory, and
the theological origins of totalitarianism 124
Michael Lackey
8. Secular self-sacrifi ce: on Michel Foucault’s courses
at the Collège de France 146
James Bernauer
Select bibliography 161
Index 167
Contributors
Barry Allen, McMaster University; author of Artifi ce and Design: Art and Technol-
ogy in Human Experience (Cornell 2008), Knowledge and Civilization (Westview
2004), Truth in Philosophy (Harvard 1993), and numerous articles on Foucault,
Nietzsche, and pragmatism.
Babette E. Babich, Fordham University; executive editor of New Nietzsche Studies;
author of Words in Blood, Like Flowers: Philosophy and Poetry, Music and Eros in Höl-
derlin, Nietzsche, Heidegger (SUNY 2006), Habermas, Nietzsche, and Critical Theory
(Humanity 2004), and other books.
James Bernauer, Boston College; author of Michel Foucault’s Force of Flight: Toward
an Ethics for Thought (Humanities Press 1990); co-editor of special issue of Phil-
osophy and Social Criticism (September 2005) commemorating the twentieth
anniversary of Michel Foucault’s death, co-editor of Michel Foucault and The-
ology: The Politics of Religious Experience (Ashgate 2004).
David Couzens Hoy, Distinguished Professor at the University of California,
Santa Cruz; author of The Time of Our Lives: A Critical History of Temporality (MIT
2009), Critical Resistance: From Poststructuralism to Post-Critique (MIT 2004), Crit-
ical Theory (with Thomas McCarthy, Blackwell 1994), The Critical Circle: Literature,
History, and Philosophical Hermeneutics (University of California 1982); editor of
Foucault: A Critical Reader (Blackwell 1986).
Colin Koopman, Humanities Research Fellow in Philosophy at University of
California, Santa Cruz; author of Pragmatism as Transitionalism (forthcoming),
‘Revising Foucault’ (Philosophy and Social Criticism, forthcoming), ‘Foucault’s
Methodological Expansion: Adding Genealogy to Archaeology’ (Journal of the
Philosophy of History, forthcoming), and other articles.
Michael Lackey, University of Minnesota; author of African American Atheists and
Political Liberation: A Study of the Sociocultural Dynamics of Faith (Univ. Press of
Florida 2007), Modernist God States: A Literary Study of the Theological Origins of
Totalitarianism (forthcoming), and many articles.
C. G. Prado (editor), Queen’s University (emeritus); author of Choosing to Die:
Elective Death and Multiculturalism (Cambridge 2008), Searle and Foucault on Truth
(Cambridge 2006), and other books; editor of A House Divided: Comparing Ana-
lytic and Continental Philosophy (Humanity 2003) and other collections.
Contributors vii
Tom Rockmore, Duquesne University; McAnulty College Distinguished Profes-
sor; author of Kant and Idealism (Yale 2007), Hegel, Idealism, and Analytic Philosophy
(Yale 2005), On Foundationalism (Rowman and Littlefi eld 2004), other books
and many articles.
Santiago Zabala, Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Potsdam University Institute
of Philosophy; author of The Hermeneutic Nature of Analytic Philosophy (Columbia
2008) and The Remains of Being (forthcoming); editor of Weakening Philosophy:
Essays in Honor of Gianni Vattimo (McGill-Queen’s 2007) and Richard Rorty and
Gianni Vattimo’s The Future of Religion (Columbia University Press 2005).
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Editor’s introduction
C. G. Prado
How does one assess a philosopher’s legacy? In the case of Michel Foucault,
one of the most infl uential thinkers of the latter twentieth century, one can
begin by considering the reputation that he acquired during his lifetime
and the impact of his works on notable scholars in all the disciplines of
the human sciences. But assessment of his philosophical legacy inevita-
bly focuses on his infl uence on thinkers in his own canonical tradition.
Contrary to this, it is also necessary to consider the broader impact of
his central ideas on philosophers outside his methodological and canon-
defi ned intellectual milieu. In the case of Foucault, this latter is not an easy
task. There has been notable lack of engagement with Foucault on the part
of philosophers in the analytic tradition.1 Despite this disinterest, though,
Foucault’s central ideas have had an impact.
If evidence of Foucault’s far-reaching infl uence is required, one need
look no further than statements by his biographers and commentators
on his writings. ‘At the time of his death,’ as James Miller writes, ‘Michel
Foucault was perhaps the single most famous intellectual in the world.’2
Alan Ryan is still more positive, saying that Foucault ‘was the most famous
intellectual fi gure in the world’ when he died.3 David Macey makes the
more modest claim that at his death Foucault ‘was without doubt France’s
most prominent philosopher,’ but he adds that Foucault’s international
reputation ‘almost eclipsed his reputation in France.’4 Miller makes a fur-
ther comment that is most relevant to the articles that follow in this col-
lection; he tells us that scholars across the academic spectrum continue
to grapple with the implications of Foucault’s research and dwell on the
abstract questions he raised.5 Jonathan Arac is more assertive, contending
that ‘Foucault’s work . . . changed the basis for the work of all scholars.’6
One may be forgiven for suspecting such claims to be exaggerated; it
is commonplace for followers of theorists to express over-enthusiasm for
the work of their favorites and to overstate its originality or importance.
But in the case of this rather enigmatic fi gure, the claims seem not to be
