Foucault’s analysis of subjectivity and the question of philosophizing with words or things

Authors

  • Senem Öner İstanbul Arel University

Keywords:

Foucault, Subjectivity, Power, Discourse, Problematization

Abstract

This article examines how Foucault analyzes subjectivity within the frame of his approach concerning power and discourse, and the concepts of archaeology and problematization as all discursive and non-discursive practices that constitute the subject and subjective experience. The article investigates the philosophical and political implications occurring as a result of Foucault’s rejection of the idea of natural, ahistorical, founding and constituting subject at the outset and his emphasis on the history of the constitution of subjectivity, i. e. the very historicity and historical singularity of subjective experience. Pursuing an answer to the question whether Foucault philosophizes with words or things, the present study claims that Foucault does not philosophize either by words or things in Durkheimian sense but does so by analyzing discourse as practices forming the object of which they speak systematically.

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Author Biography

Senem Öner, İstanbul Arel University

Assist. Prof. Dr., İstanbul Arel University, Faculty of Science and Letters, Department of Translation and Interpreting

References

Durkheim, E. (1958). The Rules of Sociological Method, Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press.

Florence, M. (1994). Foucault, Michel, 1926-. The Cambridge Companion to Foucault, (ed.) G. Gutting, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Foucault, M. (2000). Hakikat Kaygısı. Özne ve İktidar. Michel Foucault. Seçme Yazılar 2, (ed.) F. Keskin, (trans.) I. Ergüden and O. Akınhay, İstanbul: Ayrıntı.

------------ (2000), The Subject and Power. Power: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. 3, (ed.) J. D. Faubion, New York: The New Press.

------------ (1997). The Archaeology of Knowledge, London: Routledge.

------------ (1994). Preface to the History of Sexuality. Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, Essential Works of Foucault, Vol. 1, (ed.) P. Rabinow, New York: The New Press, p. 200.

------------ (1986) Questions of Method: An Interview with Michel Foucault. After Philosophy: End or Transformation?, (eds.) K. Baynes, J. Bohman and T. McCarthy, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

------------ (1986). The Use of Pleasure: History of Sexuality, Vol. 2, New York: Vintage.

Keskin, F. (2000). Özne ve İktidar. Özne ve İktidar. Michel Foucault. Seçme Yazılar 2, (ed.) F. Keskin, (trans.) I. Ergüden and O. Akınhay, İstanbul: Ayrıntı.

Urhan, V. (2000). Michel Foucault ve Arkeolojik Çözümleme, İstanbul: Paradigma.

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Published

2016-01-19

How to Cite

Öner, S. (2016). Foucault’s analysis of subjectivity and the question of philosophizing with words or things. Journal of Human Sciences, 13(1), 479–486. Retrieved from https://j-humansciences.com/ojs/index.php/IJHS/article/view/3493

Issue

Section

Philosophy